A couple of days ago I saw a comic in which ghosts were supposedly using a nude beach, and there were sheets hung over the fence. It made me wonder when the current representation of ghosts as a sheet draped over a body form, with holes for the eyes and mouth, began. How were they portrayed (if at all) previously?
My personal historical research goes back no further than memories of Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoons, in which Casper himself was a translucent humanoid figure, whereas some of the other ghosts IIRC were of the sheet variety.
Some quick poking around suggests that ghosts wearing burial shrouds, which look like sheets, started in the 18th century and seemed to have morphed into what we see today.
1804 is the date I’m seeing for the first time a ghost was depicted wearing an actual sheet.
the sheeted ghost began to gain ground on stage in the 19th century because an armored ghost could not satisfactorily convey the requisite spookiness: it clanked and creaked, and had to be moved about by complicated pulley systems or elevators.
I mean, that’s what it says, but here’s the payoff line:
He selected Friday, the 17th of August, for his appearance, and spent most of that day in looking over his wardrobe, ultimately deciding in favour of a large slouched hat with a red feather, a winding-sheet frilled at the wrists and neck, and a rusty dagger.
If I read it correctly, the “bedsheet ghost” in “The Canterville Ghost” isn’t Sir Simon (who wears a burial shroud) - it’s the fake ghost that the family sets up to scare him:
Something had evidently happened to the spectre, for the light had entirely faded from its hollow eyes, the gleaming falchion had fallen from its hand, and it was leaning up against the wall in a strained and uncomfortable attitude. He rushed forward and seized it in his arms, when, to his horror, the head slipped off and rolled on the floor, the body assumed a recumbent posture, and he found himself clasping a white dimity bed-curtain, with a sweeping-brush, a kitchen cleaver, and a hollow turnip lying at his feet! Unable to understand this curious transformation, he clutched the placard with feverish haste, and there, in the grey morning light, he read these fearful words: -
YE OTIS GHOSTE. Ye Onlie true and Originale Spook. Beware of Ye Imitationes. All others are Counterfeite.
Ah, I see. It does feel in the ballpark, though still not the same as a person wandering around with a sheet over their head, with holes cut out for the eyes.
Sheesh, I see that people have been hairsplitting over self-defense and manslaughter vs. murder long, long before the George Zimmerman & Trayvon Martin case.
Unfortunately .gifs don’t seem to be embeddable, there’s the link for anyone interested.
