THAT SCARVES, now confined to funerals, were auciently given at Marriages, has been already noticed in a former section, from Ben Jonson's "Silent Woman." (1) In the same author's "Tale of a Tub," Turf is introduced as saying on this occasion: "We shall all ha' BRIDE-LACES or Points, (*) I zee.'

Herrick, in his "Hesperides," p. 128, in the "Epithalamie on Sir Clipesby Crew and his Lady," thus cautions the bridegroom's men against offending the delicacy of the newmarried lady:

"We charge ye that no strife (Farther than gentleness tends) get place Among ye, striving for her LACE."

And it was observed before, in the account of the Marriage Ceremony of John Newchombe, the wealthy clothier of Newbury, cited by Strutt, vol. iii. p. 154, that his bride was led to church between two sweet Boys, "with Bride-Laces and Rosemary tied about their silken sleeves." (3)

() In a curious manuscript in my possession, entitled "A Monthes Jorney into Fraunce: Observations on it," 4to. without date, but bearing internal evidence of having been written in the time of Charles the First (soon after his marriage with Henrietta Maria), and that the writer was a Regent M.A. of the University of Oxford, p. 82, is the following passage: "A Scholler of the University never disfurnished so many of his Friendes to provide for his Jorney, as they (the French) doe Neighbours, to adorne their Weddings. At my beinge at Pontoise, I sawe Mistres Bryde returne from the Church. The day before shee had beene somewhat of the condition of a Kitchen Wench, but now so tricked up with SCARFES, Rings, and Crosse-Garters, that you never sawe a Whitsun-Lady better rigged. I should much have applauded the Fellowes fortune if he could have maryed the Cloathes; but (God be mercifull to hym!) he is chayned to the Wench; much joy may they have together, most peerlesse couple,

"Hymen Hymenæi, Hymen, Hymen O Hymenæe!

"The match was now knytt up amongst them. I would have a French Man marie none but a French Woman."

VOL. II.

(1) A bride says to her jealous husband, in Dekker's "Match me in London," 4to. 1631: "See at my Girdle hang my Wedding Knives! With those dispatch me."

From a passage in the old play of " King Edward the Third," 1599, there appear to have been two of them. See Reed's Shaksp. 1803, vol. xx. p. 206.

So among the lots, in a Lottery presented before the Queen, in Davison's "Poetical Rapsody," No. 11 is

"A Pair of Knives.

"Fortune doth give these paire of Knives to

This false heart (in my death) most true to thee."

(Shews a Knife hanging by her side.) (2) See Mr. Douce's Essay on this subject in the Archæologia of the Soc. of Antiq. vol. xii. In a book of some curiosity, entitled "The French Garden, for English Ladyes and Gentlewomen to walke in," &c. 8vo. Lond. 1621, Signat. E. 6 b, in a dialogue describing a lady's dress, the mistress thus addresses her waiting woman: "Give me my

Girdle, and see that all the Furniture be at it: looke if my Cizers, the Pincers, the Pen- Knife, the Knife to close letters, with the Bodkin, the Ear-picker, and the Seale, be in the Case: where is my Purse to weare upon my Gowne?" &c.

In "Well met, Gossip; or, 't is merry when Gossips meet," 4to. Lond. 1675, Signat. A. 3 b, the Widow says:

"For this you know, that all the wooing

very true

In conscience I had twenty Pair of Gloves, When I was Maid, given to that effect; Garters, Knives, Purses, Girdles, store of Rings,

And many a thousand dainty, pretty things."

(3) Thus as to another part of the dress, in the old play of "The Witch of Edmonton," 4to. Lond. 1658, p. 13, Old Carter tells his daughter and her sweetheart: "Your Marriage-money shall be receiv'd before your Wedding-Shooes can be pulled on. Blessing on you both."

So in Dekker's "Match me in London:" "I thinke your Wedding Shoes have not beene oft unty'd." Down answers, "Some three

times."

The following remarkable passage occurs

in "The Praise of Musicke" (ascribed to Dr. Case), 8vo. Oxford, 1586, Signat. F. 3: "I come to Mariages, wherein as our Ancestors (I do willingly harp upon this string, that our yonger Wits may know they stand under correction of elder Judgements) did fondly and with a kind of doting maintaine many Rites and Ceremonies, some whereof were either Shadowes or Abodements of a pleasant Life to come, as the eating of a Quince Peare, to be a preparative of sweete and delightfull dayes between the maried persons."

The subsequent, no less curious, I find in "A Treatise wherein Dicing, Dauncing, Vaine Playes, or Enterluds, with other idle Pastimes, &c. commonly used on the Sabboth Day, are reproved by the authoritie of the Word of God and auncient writers, by John Northbrooke, Minister and Preacher of the Word of God," 4to. Lond. 1579, p. 35: “In olde time (we reade) that there was usually caried before the Mayde when she shoulde be maried, and came to dwell in hir Husbandes house, a Distaffe, charged with Flaxe, and a Spyndle hanging at it, to the interte shee might bee myndefull to lyve by hir labour."

(4) Chaucer's Miller of Trumpington is represented as wearing a Sheffield knife: "A Shefeld thwitel bare he in his Hose:" and it is observable that all the portraits of Chaucer give him a knife hanging at his breast. I have an old print of a female foreigner, entitled "Forma Pallii Mulieris Clevensis euntis ad forum," in which are delineated, as hanging from her girdle, her purse, her keys, and two sheathed knives.

Among the women's trinkets about A.D. 1560, in the Four P's of John Heywood,

for a man and a woman to sleep together," is too ridiculous to merit any serious answer.

Selden, in his "Uxor Hebraica" (Opera, tom. iii. p. 680), asserts that nowhere else, but before the face of, and at the door of the church, could the marriage-dower have been lawfully assigned. (2) "Neque alibi quam in ' facie Ecclesiæ et ad ostium Ecclesiæ, atque ante desponsationem in initio Contractus (ut Juris Consultus nostri veteres aiunt) sic fundi dos legitimè assignari potuit." (8)

By the Parliamentary Reformation of Marriage and other Rites under King Edward the Sixth, the man and woman were first permitted to come into the body or middle of the church, standing no longer as formerly at the door: yet by the following, from Herrick's Hespe

1

(1) In the Missale ad Usum Ecclesiæ Sarisburiensis, 1555: "Statuantur Vir et Mulier ante ostium Ecclesiæ, sive in faciem Ecclesiæ, coram Deo et Sacerdote et Populo." See also the "Formula" in the Appendix to "Hearne's Hist. and Antiq. of Glastonb." p. 309.

(2) We read in Bridges's "Hist. of Northamptonshire," vol. i. p. 135, that "Robert Fitz Roger, in the 6th Ed. I. entered into an engagement with Robert de Tybetot, to marry, within a limited time, John, his son and heir, to Hawisia, the daughter of the said Robert de Tybetot, to endow her at the Church-door on her wedding day with Lands amounting to the value of one hundred pounds per annum."

Chaucer, who flourished during the reign of Edward the Third, alludes to this custom in his "Wife of Bath," thus: "She was a worthy woman all her live,

Husbands at the Church dore had she five."

In the curious collection of prints, illus trating ancient customs, in the library of Francis Douce, Esq., there is one that represents a marriage solemnizing at the church door.

In a MS. entitled "Historical Passages concerning the Clergy in the Papal Times," cited in The History of Shrewsbury," 4to. 1779, p. 92, notes, it is observed that "the Pride of the Clergy and the Bigotry of the Laity were such. that both rich and poor were married at the Church Doors."

(3) See also Ibid. p. 684.

In a MS. Missal of the date of Richard the Second's reign, formerly the property of

University College in Oxford, in the Marriage Ceremony, the man says: "Ich M. take the N. to my weddid Wyf, to haven and to holden, for fayrere for fouler, for bettur for wors, for richer for porer, in seknesse and in helthe, for thys tyme forward, til dethe us departe, zif holichirche will it orden; and zerto iche plizt the my treuthe:" and on giving the Ring: "With this Ring I the wedde, and zis Gold and Selver Ich the zeve, (a) and with my Bodi I the worschepe, and with all my worldly Catelle I the honoure." The woman says: "Iche N. take the M. to my weddid husbond, to haven and to holden, for fayrer for fouler, for better for wors, for richer for porer, in seknesse and in helthe, to be bonlich and buxum in Bed and at Burdo, tyl deth us departe, fro thys tyme forward, and if holichirche it wol orden; & zerto Iche plizt the my truthe."

The variations of these Missals on this head are observable. The Hereford Missal makes the man say: "I N. underfynge the N. for my wedde wyf, for betere for worse, for richer for porer, yn sekenes & in helthe, tyl deth us departe, as holy Church hath ordeyned; and therto Y plygth the my trowthe." The woman says: "I N. underfynge the N. &c. to be boxum to the tyl deth us departe," &c.

In the Sarum Manual there is this remarkable variation in the Woman's speech: "to be bonere and buxom in Bedde and at Borde,"

(a) See also the "Missale ad usum Sarum," an. 1554, fol. 43.

&c. Bonaire and buxum are explained in the margin by "meek and obedient."

In the York Manual the woman engages to

be "buxom" to her husband; and the man takes her "for fairer for fouler, for better for warse,' &c.

THIS custom is enjoined in the Hereford Missal.(1) By the Sarum Missal it is directed that the sops immersed in this wine, as well as the liquor itself, and the cup that contained it, should be blessed by the priest.(2)

The beverage used on this occasion was to be drunk by the bride and bridegroom and the rest of the company.

In Mr. Lysons's Environs of London, vol. iii., p. 624, in his account of Wilsdon Parish, in Middlesex, he tells us of an "Inventory of the Goods and Ornaments belonging to Wilsdon Church about A. D. 1547," in which occur "two Masers that were appointed to remayne in the church for to drynk yn at Brideales." (3)

The pieces of cake, or wafers, that

appear to have been immersed in the wine on this occasion, were properly called Sops, and doubtless gave name to the flower termed "Sops in Wine."

The allusions to this custom in our old Plays are very numerous.(*)

In Ben Jonson's Magnetic Lady, the wine drank on this occasion is called " a Knitting Cup."

The Jews have a custom at this day, when a couple are married, to break the glass in which the bride and bridegroom have drank, to admonish them of mortality.(5).

This custom of Nuptial Drinking appears to have prevailed in the Greek Church.(6)

(1) "Post Missam, Panis, et Vinum, vel aliud bonum potabile in Vasculo proferatur, et gustent in nomine Domini, Sacerdote primo sic dicente Dominus vobiscum.""

· (2) "Benedicatur Panis et Vinum vel aliud quid potabile in Vasculo, et gustent in nomine Domini, Sacerdote dicente Dominus vobiscum.' The form of Benediction ran thus: "Benedic Domine panem istum et hunc potum et hoc vasculum, sicut benedixisti quinque panes in Deserto et sex hydrias inChanaan Galileæ, ut sint sani et sobrii atque immaculati omnes gustantes ex iis," &c.

(3) In Coates's History of Reading, p. 225, under the year 1561, in the Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Lawrence's Parish, is the following entry: "Bryde-Past. It. receyved of John Radleye, vis. viijd." A note says: "Probably the Wafers, which, together with sweet Wine, were given after the solemniza

tion of the Marriage." See the account of the ceremony of the Marriage between Frederick Count Palatine of the Rhine and the Princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of King James the First, on St. Valentine's Day, 1613. Leland's Collectanea, vol. vi. p. 335. So, at the marriage of Queen Mary and Philip of Spain, "Wyne and Sopes were hallowed." Leland, vol. iv. p. 400.

In "The Workes of John Heiwood, newlie imprinted," 4to. Lond. 1676, Signat. b. iv. the following passage occurs:

"The Drinke of my Brydecup I should have forborne

Till temperaunce had tempred the taste
beforne.

I see now, and shall see while I am alive,
Who wedth or he be wise shall die or he

thrive."