WEDDINGS AND FUNERALS
At weddings wheat was scattered on the head of the bride; scarves,
gloves, and ribbons of the bride’s colours were presented to the
bridesmen; at the church the company carried rosemary; after the
ceremony the bride handed the cup around; it contained “sops in wine”
hallowed, and was called the knitting cup; afterwards was presented
the bride cake, but not in the church; there was a great feast, as
sumptuous as the bride’s father could afford; the bride wore her
hair on this, her last appearance as a maiden, down her back. She
distributed at her wedding, bride laces. At the better houses an
epithalamium was pronounced; in the case of rich people there was
a masque; in all houses, rich or poor, there was music, there was
bride-ale, and there was feasting. There was also fooling of various
kinds, with jests not the most seemly, and forms and ceremonies not the
most refined, which have long since been abandoned. Even in that time
voices were lifted up against the licence of the wedding sports.
Flowers, herbs, and rushes were strewed before the footsteps of the
bride on her way to church. It was unlucky if the rain fell upon a
wedding, and equally unlucky if the bride failed to weep during the
ceremony. The lucky days for weddings were as follows:—
Jan. 2, 4, 11, 19, 21.
Feb. 1, 3, 10, 19, 21.
March 3, 5, 12, 20, 23.
April 2, 4, 12, 20, 22.
May 2, 4, 12, 20, 23.
June 1, 3, 11, 19, 21.
July 1, 3, 12, 19, 21, 31.
Aug. 2, 11, 18, 20, 30.
Sept. 1, 9, 11, 18, 28.
Oct. 1, 8, 15, 17, 27, 29.
Nov. 5, 11, 13, 22, 25.
Dec. 1, 8, 10, 19, 23, 29.
It was unlucky to have the banns called at the end of one quarter and
the marriage at the beginning of the next.
The superstitions, indeed, connected with weddings were innumerable.
Let it suffice to quote Herrick in the concluding ceremony:—
“And now the yellow vaile at last
Over her fragrant cheek is cast.
* * * * *
You, you, that be her nearest kin,
Now o’er the threshold force her in,
But to avert the worst
Let her, her fillets first
Knit to the posts: this point
Rememb’ring, to anoint
The sides: for ’tis a charme
Strong against future harme:
And the evil deads, the which
There was hidden by the witch.”
[Illustration: “CORPE BEARER” IN THE TIME OF A PLAGUE AT LONDON
From a contemporary print in the British Museum.]
The funeral customs are described in the following (_Antiq. Rep._ iv.
585):—
“I met nothing more pleasing to me than the funeral ceremonies at the
interment of a My Lord, which mine host procured me the sight of. The
relations and friends being assembled in the house of the defunct, the
minister advanced into the middle of the chamber, where, before the
company, he made a funeral oration, representing the great actions
of the deceased, his virtues, his qualities, his titles of nobility,
and those of the whole family; so that nothing more could be said
towards consoling every one of the company for the great loss they had
sustained in this man, and principally the relations, who were seated
round the dead body, and whom he assured that he was gone to heaven,
the seat of all sorts of happiness, whereas the world that he had just
left was replete with misery. It is to be remarked that during this
oration there stood upon the coffin a large pot of wine, out of which
every one drank to the health of the deceased, hoping that he might
surmount the difficulties he had to encounter in his road to Paradise,
where, by the mercy of God, he was about to enter; on which mercy
they founded all their hope, without considering their evil life and
that God is just. This being finished, six men took up the corpse,
and carried it on their shoulders to the church: it was covered with
a large cloth, which the four nearest relations held each by a corner
with one hand, and in the other carried a bough. The other relations
and friends had in one hand a flambeau, and in the other a bough,
marching thus through the street, without singing or saying any prayer,
till they came to the church, where, having placed the body on trestles
and taken off the cloth from the coffin (which is ordinarily made of
fine walnut-tree, handsomely worked and ornamented with iron bandages,
chased in the manner of a buffet), the minister then ascended his
pulpit, and, every one being seated round about the coffin, which is
placed in a kind of parade in the middle of the church, he read a
portion of Holy Scripture, concerning the resurrection of the dead, and
afterwards sang some psalms, to which all the company answered. After
this he descended, having his bough in his hand like the rest of the
congregation; this he threw on the dead body when it was put into the
grave, as did all the relations, extinguishing their flambeaux in the
earth with which the corpse was to be covered. This finished, every one
retired to his home without farther ceremony.”
Poor people seem to have been lowered into the grave either quite naked
or wrapped in a shroud without any coffin.