The Prince in the Pauper: Clara Reeve and The Old English Baron

Abstract

In The Castle of Otranto, the mechanism of restoration and transmission occurs at an inflated distance. The kingdom comes to Theodore as the result of prophecy fulfilled: ‘that the Castle and Lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it’ (1963, 15). Although the narrator tells us that the prophecy makes little sense, it establishes an inverse relationship. The ghost of Alonso seemingly keeps pace with the maturation of Theodore. The ghost becomes ‘too big’ to inhabit the castle because its rightful owner is now big enough to replace it. In The Old English Baron, past and present collaborate. Set a trial by ordeal to clear his honor, that of having to spend three nights in the abandoned wing of the castle to ascertain whether it be haunted, Edmund is rewarded for his courage not by the representatives of the present order but by the ghostly law of the past: He thought … there entered a warrior, leading a lady by the hand, who was young and beautiful, but pale and wan: the man was dressed in complete armour and his helmet down. They approached the bed; they undrew the curtains. He thought the man said, ‘Is this our child?’ The woman replied, ‘It is; and the hour approaches that he shall be known for such.’