SOURCE: "Horace Walpole and Shakespeare" Studies in Philology XXXI, No. 1, January, 1934, pp. 51-68.

In the following essay, Stein examines Walpole's attitude toward Shakespeare—especially through his defense of Shakespeare against Voltaire. Stein concludes that, although Walpole regarded Shakespeare, highly he was not one of Walpole's literary influences.

Within the last twenty-five years, there has been a marked growth of interest in Horace Walpole and the Gothic movement, of which he was both the originator and the outstanding representative.¹ There have appeared a number of theories,² pointing to possible sources of the "gooseflesh" tendency, most of them trying to show that the Elizabethan influence was quite potent in the formation and development of Gothicism,³ although some critics stray too far in their attempt to prove their theory.⁴ They are in agreement that the Elizabethan influence, if there was any, was transmitted mainly through Shakespeare, towards whom there was a...