Treading the Boards and Under the Covers

Abstract

The historical experience of haunting cannot be properly understood without considering the fictional portrayal of ghosts over the centuries. Fiction, whether presented on the page or on the stage, both reflected and shaped popular perceptions about ghosts. For much of the period under discussion the majority of people were illiterate, and most people never visited a theatre, but the influence of plays, pamphlet accounts, ballads and novels reached beyond the theatre audiences and those who could read. It is difficult to tease apart the patterns of influence between the media, belief and public perception in the past, but we must be sensitive to the reciprocity between them. It is certainly the case that playwrights, novelists and balladeers pandered to general preconceptions to ensure audience recognition. Ghosts behaved in certain ways, and to depart too far from popular preconceptions was to risk failure in attempting to recreate the haunted experience. Yet, in the process, stereotypical ghostly traits were reinforced in popular belief and action. Many of the hauntings discussed in this book can be seen as forms of popular or street theatre, which in their manifestation or deliberate staging, were influenced by contemporary literature and visual entertainment. It is likely, for instance, that the depiction of ghosts in white sheets on stage and in literature helped to perpetuate the use of this disguise by hoaxers. Those witnessing a hoax were often participating in the drama rather than being passive spectators.