CASTLE.] MARRIAGE FESTIVITIES AT RAGLAN-FARCE. 149 "What! before all this company?' said Deputy; 'that were a shame.' "Up he goes again to the lady, and tells her that they were agreed. My lady drank to him upon the same condition. He pledged her, and wished the wine might be his poison if he did not marry her after dinner. The lady, willing to prefer her woman to such a fortune, held him to his word, and required performance of his promise, giving her many and high commendations. "Tom went not from any part of his promise, onely the time excepted; and that in regard he meant to buy himself some wedding clothes. The Marquess, willing to remove that obstacle, told him that he thought his clothes would fit him; and bid him goe unto his wardrope, and take what he had a mind to. 'Give me your key,' said Tom. It was delivered unto him. Up went he, and then came down with his bever hat, sattin cloke, laid with plush, dawb'd with a gold and silver lace, suite of the same, silk stockings, with roses and garters suitable, inside and outside, capope, all as brave as if he carried a lordship on his back. "The lady-bride then takes her woman aside, and dresses her in one of her richest and newest gownes-that should have made every day of that week sensible of an exchange-with all things answerable thereunto; not without some store of slight jewels; and brings her down, as glorious as the morne, that breaks from the eastern hill, and chases night away. "They look upon one another, and all upon them both. Tom cries out, ‘I had best be in good earnest, my lady.' Said my lady, 'I thought you had been in sober sadness.' 'Neither, madam,' said the new bridegroome. But, old Tom, I hope,' said the lady, 'you will not make me take all this paines for nothing?' 'No, by no means,' saith he; if ever we repent, we will sell our fine cloathes and buy cattle! It is better being a lord for a week, than a slave for ever. Come thy wayes,' quoth he How happy is the wooing That is not long a doing!' "Well-married they were, in the greatest pomp and ceremony; and the Queen of Beauty took delight in leading the eyes of the vulgar, which by this time were altogether fixed on the ladye of the May. Tom acted his scene or mirth in the hall—which proved to be a thing of that convenience, as if it had been an act of some set policie, to keep the crowd out of the parlour that the nasquers might have roome enough to dance in. "At last, when the masque was ended, and time had brought in supper, the 'Cushine' led the dance, out of the parlour into the hall, and saluted the oldnew-made bridegroome and his lady, leading them into the parlour, to a table which was furnished with the same allowance that was allotted for all the nobles, where they were soon forced to sit down first-Tom taking upon him as much good cheer as they could give him. "In fine, supper being ended, the Marquess of Worcester asked the Ladybride, 'If she had a hundred pounds about her?' She answered, 'No, my lord, but I can send for as much.' 'I pray do,' said the Marquess; 'but it must be all in gold.' She sent for it, and presented it to her father; who pulled out another purse of an hundred pieces, and put the two hundred pieces in the bason, saying, 'Madam, if you do not give earnest, Deputy will tell you in the morning, that he married your woman but in jest.' Whereupon some gave fifty, others forty; some gave twenty, others ten; the least gave five gold pieces, who sat at the table-in all, £700. The apparel and other gifts, amounting to no lesse a value than one thousand pounds; which so transported the old man, that he protested, 'that now he was in the humour, he would marry all the waiting gentlewomen they had; one every day in the week, as long as the wedding lasted.' My Lord Marquess replied, Ay, but Tom, you should have added, "at this rate." "Not to be too tedious, the man-what with bounty, and what with that which was as free to every man, as was their purses unto him, which was good wine—the man was not himself when he should have gone to bed. Which being related to my lord, his lordship took occasion to tell the company the story of the beggar, who was made believe he did but dreame of the happiness which really happened; and, thereupon, the marquess was desirous to make experiment whether it could be related in the person of old Thomas. In order whereto, he gave command that my friend Thomas should be disrobed of his neat wedding garment, the rest of his fine clothes taken from him, and himself carried unto his old lodging in the porter's lodge; and his wife to respite the solemnisation of the marriage, until his comportment should deserve so faire an admission-the which was done accordingly. "The next morning made the experiment to answer the height of all their expectations; for news was brought unto the Marquess-all the rest of the lords and ladies standing by-that Tom took all yesterday's work but for a dream; or, at least, seemed to do so to humour the fancy. But I should be endlesse," says Bayly, "if I should relate unto you the sport that this fellow made. "To conclude: The Marquess called them both before him, and delivered unto them the money, with many good exhortations to them both, thus moralizing upon the premises"-in a strain very characteristic of that day : "That which was first in intention, is oftentimes, both with God and man, the last in execution. As, for example, God had, before all worlds, determined to show his love for mankind, by wedding his onely Sonne to his Church; so CASTLE.] MARRIAGE FESTIVITIES-ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS. 151 that thus much we have gained already, viz., that the marriage that was made in paradise between Adam and Eve, though it was the first in time, yet it was but secondary to the first intention; and he that said, "Before Abraham was, I am," was also before Adam was; and though the first marriage was but a type of the second, yet the second, according to the aforesaid intention, was an antecedent to the first: God, who having an intention to wed his Sonne to his beloved spouse, the Church, gave way to this type, or figure, or to bring the similitude a little homer-mock-wedding, which was between Adam and Eve, whom to make appear more worthy and glorious in the eyes of his beloved, and all other creatures, he arrayed with full majesty, and the robe of righteousness. His mercy-the lady and empress of all the glorious attributes of God-arrais this type and figure of his Church with the robe of innocence, and gives them both a large proportion of his grace. These blessings, Adam, by tasting the forbidden fruit, lost with his paradise, and slept in death. Gentlemen,' concluded the Marquess, 'I will not make any application hereof, lest I may seeme to mistrust your wisdomes; but I have nothing to say to the woman. The preceding is certainly a very curious passage in the history of A potent, grave, and reverend signior. It reminds one of some parts of Don Quixote and of Rabelais-all but the sermon at the close-which may have been imitated from one of the old "Mysteries" then in vogue. But to these "Apophthegms" and Dr. Bayly, the "martial chaplain" of the household, we may return in a subsequent portion of the work. In the meantime, we shall take a survey of Raglan Castle, as it now appears, and then proceed to a narrative of the Royal Visits. Architectural Details. Of the strength, beauty, and attractions of this stronghold-which we are now to examine with some degree of minutenessa quaint old poet† has thus recorded his admiration : A famous Castle fine -- That Raglan hight, stands moated almost round; This description, of course, applies to times long before the guns of Fairfax had made a breach in the Yellow Tower; and while the Castle, with all its regal appendages, was the cherished abode of its illustrious owner-a reper Bayly, p. 36-44. Churchyard. See Wood's "Rivers of Wales." |