SUMMERS, KAREN CRADY, Ph.D. Reading Incest - The University ...

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sensation of horror in the audience; the “horrid subject” was quite enough to arouse
strong feelings of shock and distaste in the audience. 7
Though some of the orphans that
the Countess supports with her alms profess that they are afraid of the ghost of the Count,
which they believe haunts the church, no ghost is present in the play. Ironically, it is
Friar Martin who calms their fears with kind word. An orphan girl cries,
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.
Indeed I dare not go.
(II. 2. 221-4)
Martin replies that the ghost will not harm innocent children. And later, as Edmund,
Martin, and Florian are huddled together against a sudden storm, Martin lets show some
of his superstitious fear: “Will this [violent storm of thunder and lightning] convince
thee?” (II.2.244). As a priest Martin should have no superstitious fear of bad weather
and should not think of connecting it to ill omens. The fact that he does indicates the
degree to which he is out of touch with his (supposed) religious vocation. Edmund
reminds the two that this is simply a storm, a natural and not supernatural phenomenon.
Shortly thereafter, the frightened children return and report that
Some daemon rides in th’ air. . . .
I wink’d, and saw the light’ning
Burst on the monument [a statue of the dead Count]. The shield of arms
7 The Mysterious Mother was never performed, in part because Walpole continued to believe his play too
disgusting for representation: “ From the time that I first undertook the foregoing scenes, I never flattered
myself that they would be proper to appear on the stage. The subject is so horrid, that I thought it would
shock, rather than give satisfaction to an audience. . . The subject is truly more horrid than even that of
Oedipus.”
Author’s postscript, 2 nd edition.