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Corporeality and the Supernatural on the Gothic Stage, 1786 - 1836 “With Clotted Locks and Eyes Like Burning Stars”: Corporeality and the Supernatural on the Gothic Stage, 1786 - 1836 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Christopher T. Matsos, M.F.A. Graduate Program in Theatre The Ohio State University 2010 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Lesley Ferris, Advisor Dr. Beth Kattelman Dr. Virginia Cope Copyright by Christopher T. Matsos 2010 Abstract For a period of approximately fifty years in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the British stage was dominated by Gothic drama. Like the Gothic novels whose popularity flourished in the same historical moment, Gothic drama was characterized by its attempt to evoke an atmosphere of mystery, suspense, and terror through the employment of any combination of particular appurtenances: foreboding medieval landscapes; ruined Gothic castles riddled with hidden chambers; a tormented, menacing, yet engaging villain; an innocent, "Enlightened" maiden who is the subject of his advances; an ineffectual if not emasculated hero; a secret whose truth has critical ramifications on the present. Perhaps most commonly associated with the term “Gothic” is the implicit or explicit presence of the supernatural. However, Gothic drama in its original form did not necessitate supernatural manifestations. What, therefore, inspired Gothic playwrights to defy the threat of censorship and test the public‟s willingness to suspend its disbelief by persistently conjuring such entities upon London‟s stages? Gothic drama, obsessed with death and the unknown, originated and attained the height of its importance and popularity in Britain in a moment ii marked by tremendous external and internal pressures, an unprecedented string of social developments, and scientific and industrial innovations. These forces challenged, if not threatened, perceptions of the individual, collective, and political body. It is the contention of this dissertation that supernatural figures in Gothic drama, in each of their principle iterations – ghosts, magicians, and monsters - were literary devices by which corporeality could be safely explored in a time of tumultuous change and uncertainty in Britain. Gothic ghosts became signifiers of bodies of literature, political bodies, and female corporeality. Where ghosts are memories, Gothic magicians represented individuals who manipulate memory, in essence making history. These characters call to mind powerful figures like Napoleon even as they engage tensions over changing roles of women in the period. Monsters, both the vampire and Frankenstein‟s creation, allowed for the possibility of assimilating others into their corporeality, suggesting the notion that anyone has the capacity for monstrous behavior. An overarching progression emerges: Gothic drama moves from an obsession with ghosts, to manipulating and consorting with them as magicians, to the possibility of becoming ghoulish ourselves. The study concludes with the assertion that any piece of theatre that engages a memory‟s ability to haunt, the manipulation of memory to define or characterize the past, or vexations and anxieties of the body potentially carries with it the vestiges of the Gothic supernatural. iii Dedicated to Tory and my family. iv Acknowledgments I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Lesley Ferris, whose guidance and dedication made this project possible. It has been an honor and a total pleasure to work with her. I would also like to thank Dr. Beth Kattelman, who shared my delight and enthusiasm in discovering forgotten Gothic treasures, and Dr. Virginia Cope, for her invaluable assistance during my writing process. I am indebted to my family for their encouragement, love, and friendship. Finally, I would like to acknowledge my wife, Tory, whose unfailing support and love give meaning to every challenge and make every day a victory. v Vita December 13, 1977 .......................................Born, New Haven, Connecticut 2000................................................................B.A. Theatre, The College of Wooster 2003................................................................M.F.A. Theatre, University of Florida 2006 to present ............................................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Theatre, The Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: Theatre vi Table of Contents Abstract..............................................................................................................................ii Dedication.........................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgements..........................................................................................................v Vita.....................................................................................................................................vi List of Figures................................................................................................................viii Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................1 Chapter 2: A Culture of Ghosts.....................................................................................24 Chapter 3: Manipulators of Memory...........................................................................70 Chapter 4: Abominations.............................................................................................104 Chapter 5: Conclusion..................................................................................................145 Bibliography..................................................................................................................157 vii List of Figures Figure 1. Hamlet and His Father’s Ghost. Henry Fuseli (1780-1785) .......................... 36 Figure 2. The Plumb-pudding in Danger. James Gillray (1805) ................................. 87 Figure 3. T. P. Cooke in Presumption; or The Fate of Frankenstein (1823) ................ 137 Figure 4. Anti-Irish Propaganda, Punch Magazine (1843)....................................... 140 viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The second act of Horace Walpole‟s The Mysterious Mother describes an encounter with a supernatural entity of ambiguous corporeality. As storm clouds cluster above the forlorn castle of the Countess of Narbonne, the dutiful Friar Martin is ushering a group of orphans to the chapel for prayers, but sends them ahead so that he may attend to the sudden appearance of a young stranger. The children are disinclined to proceed alone: ORPHAN GIRL. Oh! Father, but I dare not pass without you By the church-porch. They say the Count sits there, With clotted locks, and eyes like burning stars.1 The Count, as it happens, has been deceased for many years. Friar Martin dispels the children‟s fears, but not by denying the existence of the Count‟s revenant: MARTIN. My loves, he will not harm such innocents. But wait me at the bridge, I‟ll straight be with ye.2 1 Horace Walpole, The Mysterious Mother (London: J. Dodley, 1781) 33. 2 Walpole 33. 1 Florian, the young stranger newly arrived on the scene, rebukes Friar Martin for indulging the children their “baby fantasy.”3 But, being the hero, Florian must, according to the conventions established by the very play he inhabits, be a product of the Enlightenment, not given to passion, but tempered with reason. He does not understand that, by contrast, Friar Martin, representative of Catholicism itself, signifies the barbarous setting in which the pair find themselves, a dark fantasia on the Middle Ages. When Florian insinuates that monks are not inherently holy, the world itself retorts with a display of outrage, as thunder and lightning send the frightened orphans back into the scene, exclaiming that a demon rides upon the air. When the superstitious Friar asks them whether they could distinguish this entity, the overwrought children say they could not, though evidence of its attack seems clear enough: SECOND ORPHAN. I wink‟d and saw the light‟ning Burnt on the monument. The shield of arms Shiver‟d to splinters. E‟er I could repeat An Ave-Mary, down with hideous crash The cross came tumbling...4 This apparent demonic assault is enough for Friar Martin to declare the vicinity 3 Walpole 33. 4 Walpole 35-36. 2 unholy ground, chastise Florian for his blasphemy, and immediately set off to alert the Countess – the highest authority in the land – of the chapel‟s preternatural vandalism. This dramatic moment is easily overlooked in Walpole‟s 1768 tragedy, which is considered the first Gothic drama. It is not critical to the plot, but it is effective in deepening the gloomy atmosphere and particular emotional response Walpole sought to evoke in his readers.5 The term “Gothic,” whether it pertains to novels, plays, or even films, is a largely arbitrary label. It is used to describe The Mysterious Mother, Walpole‟s single attempt at drama, because the playwright himself dubbed it a "Gothic Play," and because he also penned The Castle of Otranto, the first Gothic novel, four years earlier. Many of the characteristics we might identify as Gothic had occurred in plays prior to The Mysterious Mother, such as John Home‟s Douglas of 1756 and Hall Hartson‟s The Countess of Salisbury of 1763. But Walpole was specifically interested in crafting a unique kind of thematic extremism and overall sensationalism in his tale of tragic
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