In his humorous notes to the published play, Fielding states, with mock gravity:  “Of all the particulars in which the modern stage falls short of the ancient, there is none so much to be lamented as the great scarcity of ghosts.  Whence this proceeds I will not presume to determine.  Some are of opinion that the moderns are unequal to that sublime sort of language which a ghost ought to speak.  One says ludicrously that ghosts are out of fashion; another that they are properer for comedy; forgetting, I suppose, that Aristotle hath told us that a ghost is the soul of tragedy,” &c. &c.  But when, towards the commencement of the present century, melodrama was first brought upon the boards, the novels of Mrs. Radcliffe were being dramatised, and such pieces as “The Tale of Mystery,” “The Bleeding Nun,” and “The Castle Spectre,” were obtaining public favour, it was clear that room was being made for the stage ghost; the way was cleared for it to become the be-all and the end-all of the performance, the prominent attraction of the evening.

Here is an extract from Lewis’s “Castle Spectre,” including certain stage directions, by no means the least important part of the play.

     Enter HASSAN, hastily.

     HASSAN.  My lord, all is lost!  Percy has surprised the castle,
     and speeds this way!

     OSMOND.  Confusion!  Then I must be sudden!  Aid me, Hassan!

HASSAN and OSMOND force ANGELA from her father, who suddenly disengages himself from MULEY and ALARIC.  OSMOND, drawing his sword, rushes upon REGINALD, who is disarmed, and beaten upon his knees; when at the moment that OSMOND lifts his arm to stab him, EVELINA’S ghost throws herself between them.  OSMOND starts back and drops his sword.

     OSMOND.  Horror!  What form is this?

     ANGELA.  Die!

Disengages herself from HASSAN, who springs suddenly forward, and plunges her dagger in OSMOND’S bosom, who falls with a loud groan and faints.  The ghost vanishes. ANGELA and REGINALD rush into each other’s arms.

“The Castle Spectre” enjoyed great success.  It was supported by the whole strength of the Drury Lane company, John Kemble appearing as Earl Percy, and Mrs. Jordan as the heroine, and was repeated some fifty nights during its first season.

It may be worth recording that in the course of the play, the great John Kemble was required to execute, not exactly what is now known as a “sensation header,” but still a gymnastic feat of some difficulty and danger.  Earl Percy has something of the agility of a harlequin about him, and when he obtains admission into his enemy’s castle to rescue Angela, he is required to climb from a sofa up to a gothic window high above him, and then, alarmed by the approach of his negro sentinels, to fall from the height flat