There may be dramas where human character is depicted with subtler skill--though Belvidera might rank among Shakespeare's creations; and 'Venice Preserved' may not contain, like 'Macbeth' and 'Lear,' certain high conceptions which exceed even the power of stage representation--but it is as full as a tragedy can be of all the pathos that is transfusable into action." Belvidera was one of Mrs.Siddons's greatest characters.

Campbell notes that "until the middle of the last century the ghosts of Jaffier and Pierre used to come in upon the stage, haunting Belvidera in her last agonies, which certainly require no aggravation from spectral agency." The play was much condensed for presentment on the stage; but it would not appear that Belvidera's dying speech, quoted above, was interfered with.

Boaden, in his memoir of the actress, expressly commends Mrs.Siddons's delivery of the passage, "I'll dig, dig the den up!" and the action which accompanied the words.
For the time ghosts had been only incidental to a performance; by-and-by they were to become the main features and attractions of stage representation.

Still they had not escaped ridicule and caricature.

Fielding, in his burlesque tragedy of "Tom Thumb," introduced the audience to a scene between King Arthur and the ghost of Gaffer Thumb.