Ghost character

In the bibliographic or scholarly study of texts of dramatic literature, a ghost character is a term for an inadvertent error committed by the playwright in the act of writing. It is a character who is mentioned as appearing on stage, but who doesn’t do anything, and who seems to have no purpose. It is generally interpreted as an author’s mistake, indicative of an unresolved revision to the text. If the character was intended to appear and say nothing, it is assumed this would be made clear in the playscript.

The term is used in regard to Elizabethan and Jacobean plays, including the works of William Shakespeare, all of which may have existed in different revisions leading to publication. The occurrence of a ghost character in a manuscript may be evidence that the published version of a play was taken by the printer directly from an author’s foul papers.

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