The Later Career of the Elizabethan Villain-Hero Author(s): Clara F. McIntyre Reviewed work(s): Source: PMLA, Vol.

40, No. 4 (Dec., 1925), pp. 874-880 Published by: Modern Language Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/457527 . Accessed: 08/03/2012 16:39
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XL. THE LATER CAREER OF THE ELIZABETHAN VILLAIN-HERO The "villain-hero," as he developed in the plays of Marlowe and in those of some later Elizabethans, is a distinct and important type of character. Moreover, he did not make his final exit with the ending of the Elizabethan period, but has reappeared at various times since, especially during the Romantic Revival at the end of the eighteenth century. This "Romantic Movement," as we are accustomed to call it, was in many ways a revival of the earlier Romantic spirit which we call Elizabethanism. Nothing shows the resemblance between the two periods more strikingly than this habit of taking for the dominating figure in the story a man of great power, stained with crime. The first step in this, as in the Romantic method of novelwriting in general, probably may be credited to Horace Walpole, though his first step was a hesitating one. His tyrant was cruel and calculating, but aside from this he had little individuality. Like the other characters, he was a mere puppet introduced to work out the supernatural elements of the tale. Mrs. Radcliffe, who took Walpole's crude beginnings and shaped out of them a definite type of literature, now passe, it is true, but in its own day powerful, was the person really responsible for the revival of the Elizabethan villain. It was she who passed on this character to later romanticists, and for that reason it may be worth while to examine somewhat carefully the treatment which it receives in her stories. First, let us consider for a moment just what is meant by the "villain-hero." Perhaps the most concise and satisfying definition is that given by Clarence Boyer, in his book, The Villain as Hero in Elizabethan Tragedy:
We may say, then, that a villainis a man who,for a selfishend, wilfullyand violatesstandards moralitysanctionedby the audienceor ordinof deliberately is and ary reader.Whensuch a character given the leadingr61e, whenhis deeds form the centre of dramaticinterest, the villain has becomeprotagonist,and we have the type play with the villain as hero.

Every one of Mrs. Radcliffe's stories presents a character who satisfies pretty thoroughly this requirement. In each of them 874

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we find a person "who, for a selfish end, wilfully and deliberately violates the standards of morality sanctioned by the .... ordinary reader." And in the later books, more than in the earlier, we find it also true that "the villain has become protagonist." Malcolm, the villain in The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, does, it is true, by his injustice and cruelty bring about all the action of the story, but he himself is not so prominent as some of the other characters. Again, in A Sicilian Romance the Marquis is a cruel husband and father, and so furnishes the impulse for Julia's flight, but the main interest lies in the wanderings of the lovers. The Romance of the Forest has two villains: La Motte, who sins through weakness and cowardice, and the Marquis of Montalt, who is a representative of the "philosophic villain." Montoni, in The Mysteries of Udolpho, comes nearer being the protagonist than any of his predecessors. His dark and mysterious personality, in harmony with the gloom of his castle, leaves perhaps the most powerful impression we get from the book. But it is Schedoni, in The Italian, who approaches most nearly the Elizabethan idea of the villain as hero. We might say that at times at least he rises to the heights of real tragic conflict, of the sort defined by Mr. Boyer:
When a villain possesses powers that are great, aesthetically good-such as great courage and great intellectual ability-and when these powers come into conflict with moral forces in the universe so as to produce a struggle which leaves the issue in doubt, we have a tragedy which moves us to admiration, terror, and sadness. When these powers also come into conflict with qualities in the nature of the villain which are morally good, we have a struggle which arouses the highest degree of tragic pleasure, because to the other emotions is added pity for the mental suffering of the hero.

Such an inward struggle occurs when Schedoni is about to murder Ellena. Some compunctions stir him and cause him to hesitate, even before he makes the discovery which convinces him that she is his daughter. There is a suggestion of struggle when Schedoni, on the seashore, sustains the fainting Ellena:
The conflict between his design and his conscience was strong, or, perhaps, it was only between his passions.

Indeed, the character of Schedoni illustrates perfectly the type of villainy which Mr. Boyer calls "Machiavellian." In discussing Marlowe's Barabas, Mr. Boyer pronounces him "egotis-

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tical, cruel, faithless, remorseless, murderous, and a poisoner." These characteristics, he continues, "are important because they practically set the type for later villains." Again, he remarks that "ridding one's self of accomplices is the very essence of Machiavellism. It was the practice of Caesar Borgia, and is discussed in The Prince, Chapter VIII. Barabas adopted the same policy, and it became characteristic of Machiavellian villains." Now, all these characteristics are found most powerfully expressed in Schedoni. His egotism is evident in his assured bearing with the Marchesa and his contemptuous treatment of Vivaldi. He thinks of them only as they can minister to his own ambition; he is as self-centred as any of Marlowe's heroes. His cruelty cannot be questioned when we consider his advocacy of the innocent Ellena's death. He seems, indeed, the villain who, as Mr. Boyer expresses it, "has no regard whatever for human beings, but sweeps them away as though they were so many flies." He is faithless in his dealings with the Marchesa, and he dies without any real remorse; for his behavior toward his supposed daughter is inspired by natural affection rather than by repentance for evil intentions. Schedoni appears in the r6le of a poisoner, three different times. At his suggestion, apparently, Ellena is furnished with poisoned food. He gives his poisoned dagger to the peasant who has been his guide, hoping that the man may meet Spalatro, and, in defending himself, give him a fatal wound. And in the end he poisons both himself and the revengeful monk Nicola, who has been the cause of his betrayal. Moreover, Schedoni is triumphantly and unmistakably the leading figure in the book. The German translator who renamed the story Die Italienerin certainly was guilty of a stupid blunder. One is reminded of Iago when reading of Schedoni's skilful handling of the Marchesa:
So far was he fromattemptingto soothe her sufferings, he contrivedto that irritate her resentment,and exasperateher pride; effectingthis, at the same time, with such consumnateart, that he appearedonly to be palliating the conductof Vivaldi,and endeavouring consolehis distractedmother. to

He
was cautiousnot to speaktoo favourably Vivaldi'sconduct,which,on the of as Yet contrary,he represented muchmoreinsultingthan it reallywas; ....

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this he managed so artfully that he appeared to extenuate Vivaldi's errors, to lament the hastiness of his temper, and to plead for a forgiveness from his irritated mother.

Lewis's Monk has been credited with some influence on The Italian. But Lewis admitted that his main inspiration was The Mysteries of Udolpho, and in Montoni Mrs. Radcliffe had already outlined the essentials of character which she developed further in Schedoni. The same forbidding and mysterious air is ascribed to him.
Emily felt admiration, but not the admiration that leads to esteem; for it was mixed with a degree of fear she knew not exactly wherefore.

The same self-centred ambition is shown in his treatment of Emily and her aunt, and in his speedy assumption of authority upon his marriage.
Montoni now took possession of the chAteau and the command of its inhabitants, with the ease of a man, who had long considered it to be his own.

His personal bravery and contempt of suffering are in line with the usual character of the Elizabethan villain.
His countenance, which was stern, but calm, expressed the dark passion of revenge, but no symptom of pain; bodily pain, indeed, he had always despised, and had yielded only to the strong and terrible energies of the soul.

His cruelty appears in his treatment of his antagonist in the duel.

Montoni now seemed rapacious of vengeance, and with a monster's cruelty, again ordered his defeated enemy to be taken from the castle, in his present state, though there were only the woods, or a solitary neighbouring cottage, to shelter him from the night.

Without exception, Mrs. Radcliffe's villains display the chief characteristics which Mr. Boyer ascribes to the Elizabethan villain-hero. All of them have murdered, and many of the murders were committed by means of poison. All of them are selfishly ambitious, two of them being usurping brothers, a character common in Shakespeare and other Elizabethans. Some of them, indeed, are capable of sufficient remorse for a death-bed confession, but the confession seems to proceed less from genuine repentance than from a sense that the game is up and there is no special advantage in keeping the innocent victim longer from his rights. It may be that Mrs. Radcliffe's criminals show their Machiavellian nature most clearly in this very point:

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they act not so much from personal malignity as from an unwavering determination to further their own interests If selfinterest demands the brushing away of human flies, they do not hesitate. But unless some personal revenge comes in, as in the cases of Nicola and Schedoni, they will confess their crimes, when they are no longer useful, as indifferently as they have performed them. No doubt The Robberscontributed something to Mrs. Radcliffe's villain-heroes, especially Montoni and Schedoni, who in a sense are outlaws from society. But it has also been pointed out that the Elizabethan influence upon Schiller was strong. Charles and Francis de Moor are only variations of the earlier villain-hero "who, for a selfish end, wilfully and deliberately violates standards of morality sanctioned by the audience or ordinary reader." And although Mrs. Radcliffe to a certain extent changed and added to the character-at least in the case of Schedoni-the type which she handed down to Byron was, after all, the type which had flourished in that earlier Romantic period, the Elizabethan Renaissance. It is hardly necessary here to enter upon an elaborate comparison of Mrs. Radcliffe and Byron in their treatment of the "villain-hero," for the resemblance has often been noted. It will be sufficient to remark that both writers make their characters conform closely to the idea of villainy which Mr. Boyer gives in his definition quoted above. With both of them, too, this. character has become the protagonist; usually the main interest of the poem or the novel centres in him. Byron, perhaps, emphasizes specially the spirit of revolt against society, of rebellion against the ordinary conventions of life. But his villain-heroes have all the qualities of Mrs. Radcliffe's: they are selfish and unscrupulous; they have great personal strength and are brave even to rashness; they have a fierce and forbidding manner which inspires dread in all around them; and often a dark mystery conceals their early life. There seems little doubt that the character which Mrs. Radcliffe had inherited from the Elizabethan plays, modified by the German, was in large measure responsible for the "Byronic hero" who had such vogue in the early nineteenth century. It may even have influenced somewhat Byron's conception of himself. We are told that Lewis, on reading The Mysteries of Udolpho,

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naively imagined that he saw in the grim Montoni a likeness to himself. Byron seems to have had in him something of the same tendency to think himself more fascinatingly wicked than he was; although in his case, unfortunately, less effort of the imagination was required. The Byronic hero was an expression of the author's personality as he felt it, and he seems to have felt himself more of a moral outlaw, more of a rebel against conventions, than he actually was. I havenot lovedthe world; the world nor me,Butlet us partfairfoes. Byron's heroes, as truly as Marlowe's, are in arms against the world. In their egotism, their lust for power, even their love of wandering and adventure, they suggest the spirit of the Renaissance. Lewis's Monk, of course, is an extreme example of this type of villain. His character is drawn with more psychological skill. than any of Mrs. Radcliffe's, but he frankly owned his obligation to her. Scott owed much to both Mrs. Radcliffe and Lewis, though the tone of his mind was too healthy to allow him to follow them very far, and his main interest did not lie, usually, in the portrayal of crime. Marmion is the character which perhaps shows most plainly the influence of the villain-hero type. Shelley, in his early romances, gives us romanticism run mad. Zastrozzireads like a burlesque; it seems impossible that anyone should have written it with any serious artistic purpose. But we know that Shelley in his youth devoured the books of Mrs Radcliffe and her followers, and perhaps it is not strange that the untrammeled imagination of a boy, subjected to such a course of reading, should produce wild results. In his later work, Shelley's heroes show the characteristic noticed in Byron's -the spirit of revolt against the conventions of society. Indeed, we may say that the villain-hero, after he was handed over by Mrs. Radcliffe to the later Romanticists, was definitely modified by the social theories of the time, and returned more or less to the original conception of Marlowe-the man who takes up arms against the world. The influence of this character persisted in early nineteenth century novels, and was shown by art interest in criminal themes. Through the work of Bulwer Lytton and Dickens this interest in crime is continued. In

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American literature direct influence is shown in the novels of Charles Brockden Brown and in the work of Poe and Hawthorne, the last two, of course, carrying the theme into the realm of psychology. The interest which seemed to have scattered over criminal themes in general was concentrated again in a definite hero type, in the work of the Bronte sisters. Here we have a curious manifestation of the earlier spirit, and a curious difference of result. Charlotte, trying to attain a certain degree of realism and to approach the tone of everyday life, made Rochester unconvincing and created what has rather aptly been called the "gorilla type" of hero. Emily's Heathcliffe, on the contrary, is a wonderful conception. He, like the earlier villains, shrinks at nothing to attain his ends; he brushes away "human flies" with brutal unconcern. But there is one variation from the earlier type; he is moved, not by worldly ambition but by a great and consuming passion for the woman who cheats him out of what she knows is rightfully his. Wuthering Heights is a story of revenge, and so quite in the Elizabethan mood; but the revenge is spiritual rather than earthly. What I have attempted to say in this brief discussion is that the Elizabethan villain-hero did not cease to exist when the Elizabethan playwrights had finished their work. The so-called "Gothic" novelists, and especially Mrs. Radcliffe as their strongest representative, brought him forward again, and handed him on to later Romanticists like Byron and Shelley. Through these men, once more, he influenced the general course of literature and played his part in the development of the nineteenth century novel. Whether he will have another period of activity is uncertain. The modern psychologist is apt to look for more complexity of motive. But at least, his career so far is an interesting example of a recurring literary tradition.
CLARA F. MCINTYRE