Which was his father’s name.
54.
Then they staid in the royal court,
And liv’d wi’ mirth and glee,
And when her father was deceas’d,
Heir of the crown was she.
THE UNQUIET GRAVE
The Text is that communicated to the Folklore Record (vol. i. p. 60) by Miss Charlotte Latham, as it was written down from recitation by a girl in Sussex (1868).
The Story is so simple, and so reminiscent of other ballads, that we must suppose this version to be but a fragment of some forgotten ballad. Its chief interest lies in the setting forth of a common popular belief, namely, that excessive grief for the dead ‘will not let them sleep.’ Cp. Tibullus, Lib. 1. Eleg. 1, lines 67, 68:—