The Castle of Otranto(奥特兰托堡).pdf

The Castle of Otranto
The Castle of Otranto
by Horace Walpole
1
The Castle of Otranto
PREFACE TO THE FIRST
EDITION.
THE following work was found in the library of an ancient Catholic
family in the north of England. It was printed at Naples, in the black
letter, in the year 1529. How much sooner it was written does not
appear. The principal incidents are such as were believed in the darkest
ages of Christianity; but the language and conduct have nothing that
savours of barbarism. The style is the purest Italian.
If the story was written near the time when it is supposed to have
happened, it must have been between 1095, the era of the first Crusade,
and 1243, the date of the last, or not long afterwards. There is no other
circumstance in the work that can lead us to guess at the period in which
the scene is laid: the names of the actors are evidently fictitious, and
probably disguised on purpose: yet the Spanish names of the domestics
seem to indicate that this work was posed until the establishment
of the Arragonian Kings in Naples had made Spanish appellations
familiar in that country. The beauty of the diction, and the zeal of the
author (moderated, however, by singular judgment) concur to make me
think that the date of position was little antecedent to that of the
impression. Letters were then in their most flourishing state in Italy,
and contributed to dispel the empire of superstition, at that time so
forcibly attacked by the reformers. It is not unlikely that an artful
priest might endeavour to turn their own arms on the innovators, and
might avail himself of his abilities as an author to confirm the populace
in their ancient errors and superstitions. If this was his view, he has
certainly acted with signal address. Such a work as the following
would enslave a hundred vulgar minds beyond half the books of
controversy that have been written from the days of Luther to the present
hour.
This solution of the author's motives