Editing Ghost (section)

===European Renaissance to Romanticism===
[[File:File-Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act I Scene IV.png|thumb|right|"[[Hamlet]] and his father's ghost" by [[Henry Fuseli]] (1796 drawing). The ghost is wearing stylized [[plate armor]] in 17th-century style, including a [[morion (helmet)|morion]] type helmet and [[tassets]]. Depicting ghosts as wearing armor, to suggest a sense of antiquity, was common in [[Elizabethan theater]].]]
[[Renaissance magic]] took a revived interest in the [[occult]], including [[necromancy]]. In the era of the Reformation and Counter Reformation, there was frequently a backlash against unwholesome interest in the dark arts, typified by writers such as [[Thomas Erastus]].<ref>Walker, D.P. (1958) ''Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campanella.'' London: Warburg Institute, passim.</ref> The Swiss Reformed pastor [[Ludwig Lavater]] supplied one of the most frequently reprinted books of the period with his ''Of Ghosts and Spirits Walking By Night.''<ref>Original German edition: ''Von Gespänsten ..., kurtzer und einfaltiger bericht,'' Zürich, 1569 [VD16 L 834]</ref>

The [[Child Ballads|Child Ballad]] "[[Sweet William's Ghost]]" (1868) recounts the story of a ghost returning to his fiancée begging her to free him from his promise to marry her. He cannot marry her because he is dead but her refusal would mean his damnation. This reflects a popular British belief that the dead haunted their lovers if they took up with a new love without some formal release.<ref>[[Francis James Child|Child, Francis James]], ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads'', v. 2, p. 227, Dover Publications, New York 1965</ref> "[[The Unquiet Grave]]" expresses a belief even more widespread, found in various locations over Europe: ghosts can stem from the excessive grief of the living, whose mourning interferes with the dead's peaceful rest.<ref>Child, Francis James, ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads'', v 2, p 234, Dover Publications, New York 1965</ref> In many folktales from around the world, the hero arranges for the burial of a dead man. Soon after, he gains a companion who aids him and, in the end, the hero's companion reveals that he is in fact the [[Grateful dead (folklore)|dead man]].<ref name="encybrit">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/242238/grateful-dead#23476.hook|title=Grateful dead|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online|year=2007|access-date=2007-12-14|archive-date=2008-04-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080428201820/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/242238/grateful-dead#23476.hook|url-status=live}}</ref> Instances of this include the Italian [[fairy tale]] "[[Fair Brow]]" and the Swedish "[[The Bird 'Grip']]".