"I have often suspected Isabella's indifference to my son: a thousand circumstances crowd on my mind that confirm that suspicion."

— Walpole, Horatio [Horace], fourth earl of Orford (1717-1797)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Tho. Lownds in Fleet-Street
Date
1765 [1764]
Metaphor
"I have often suspected Isabella's indifference to my son: a thousand circumstances crowd on my mind that confirm that suspicion."
Metaphor in Context
Since we now understand one another, resumed the prince, I expect, father, that you satisfy me in one point. Who is the youth that we found in the vault? He must have been privy to Isabella's flight: tell me truly; is he her lover? or is he an agent for another's passion? I have often suspected Isabella's indifference to my son: a thousand circumstances crowd on my mind that confirm that suspicion. She herself was so conscious of it, that, while I discoursed with her in the gallery, she outran my suspicions, and endeavoured to justify herself from coolness to Conrad. The friar, who knew nothing of the youth but what he had learnt occasionally from the princess, ignorant of what became ofhim, and not sufficiently reflecting on the impetuosity of Manfred's temper, conceived that it might not be amiss to sow the seeds of jealousy in his mind: they might be turned to some use hereafter, either by prejudicing the prince against Isabella, if he persisted in that union; or, by diverting his attention to a wrong scent, and employing his thoughts on a visionary intrigue, prevent his engaging in any new pursuit.
(p. 50)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Twenty entries in the ESTC (1764, 1765, 1766, 1769, 1770, 1781, 1782, 1786, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1797, 1800).

Second edition of 1765 subtitled "A Gothic Story." Third edition in 1766; sixth edition by Dodsley in 1791. Several new editions in 1790s. See first edition: The Castle of Otranto, a Story. Translated by William Marshal, Gent. from the original Italian of Onuphrio Muralto (London: Tho. Lownds, 1764). <Link to ECCO>

Reading Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story. World's Classics Paperback, ed. W. S. Lewis (Oxford and New York: Oxford UP, 1982).
Date of Entry
09/14/2009
Date of Review
10/22/2003

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.