MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE COUNTRY
CONTINUED—WAKES—FAIRS—WEDDINGS—BURIALS.
Having described, in as brief a manner as was consistent with the
nature of our work, the various circumstances accompanying the
celebration of the most remarkable holidays and festivals, in
the country, during the age of Shakspeare, from whose inimitable
compositions we have drawn many pertinent illustrations on nearly
all the subjects as they passed before us; we shall proceed, in the
present chapter, to notice those remaining topics which are calculated
to complete, on the scale adopted, a tolerably correct view of rural
manners and customs, as they existed in the latter half of the
sixteenth, and prior portion of the seventeenth, century.
A natural transition will carry us, from the description of the rural
festival, to the gaieties of the WAKE or FAIR. Of these terms, indeed,
the former originally implied the vigil which preceded the festival in
honour of the Saint to whom the parish-church was dedicated; for "on
the Eve of this day," remarks Mr. Borlase, in his Cornwall, "prayers
were said, and hymns were sung all night in the church; and from
these watchings the festivals were stiled _Wakes_; which name still
continues in many parts of England, though the vigils have been long
abolished."[209:A] The religious institution, however, of the _Wake_,
whether held on the vigil or Saint's day, was soon forgotten; mirth
and feasting early became the chief objects of this meeting[209:B],
and it, at length, degenerated into something approaching towards a
secular Fair. These Wakes or Fairs, which were rendered more popular in
proportion as they deviated from their devotional origin, were, until
the reign of Henry the Sixth, always held on a Sunday and its eve, a
custom that continued to be partially observed as late as the middle of
the seventeenth century; hence ale-houses, and places of public resort,
in the immediate neighbourhood of church-yards, the former scene of
Wakes, were still common at the close of Shakspeare's life; thus Sir
Thomas Overbury, describing a Sexton, in his _Characters_, published
in 1616, says: "At every church-style commonly there's an ale-house;
where let him (the Sexton) bee found never so idle-pated, hee is still
a grave drunkard."
The increasing licentiousness and conviviality, however, which attended
these church-yard assemblies, frequented as they were by pedlars and
hawkers of every description, finally occasioned their suppression
in all places, at least, where much traffic was expected. In their
room regular Fairs were established, to which in central or peculiar
stations, the resort, at fixed periods, was immense.
Yet the _Wake_, the meeting for mere festivity and frolic, still
continued in every village and small town, and though not preceded by
any vigil in the church, was popularly termed the _Wake-Day_. Tusser,
in his catalogue of the "Old Guise," has not forgotten this season of
merriment; on the contrary, he seems to welcome its return with much
cordiality:—
"Fil oven ful of flawnes, Ginnie passe not for sleepe,
to morrow thy father his wake-daie wil keepe:
Then every wanton may danse at hir wil,
both Tomkin and Tomlin, and Jankin with Gil."[210:A]
Mr. Hilman, in his edition of Tusser, has made the following
observations on this passage.—"Waking in the church," says he, "was
left off because of some abuses, and we see here it was converted to
wakeing at the oven. The other continued down to our author's days, and
in a great many places continues still to be observed with all sorts
of rural merriments; such as dancing, wrestling, cudgel-playing, &c."
Bourne observes, that the feasting and sporting, on this occasion,
usually lasted for two or three days[211:A]; and Bishop Hall gives
an impressive idea of the revelry and glee which distinguished these
rural assemblages, when he exclaims, "What should I speak of our _merry
Wakes_, and May games—in all which put together, you may well say,
no Greek can be _merrier_ than they."[211:B] Indeed from one end of
the kingdom to the other, from north to south, it would appear, that,
among the country-villages, during the reigns of Elizabeth and her two
immediate successors, Wakes formed one of the principal amusements
of the peasantry, and were anticipated with much eagerness and
expectation. In confirmation of this we need only remark that Drayton,
speaking of Lancashire, declares, that
—— "every village smokes at _wakes_ with lusty cheer;"[211:C]
and that Herrick, in Devonshire, has written a very curious little
poem, entitled _The Wake_, which, as strikingly descriptive of the
various business of this festivity, claims here an introduction:—
"Come Anthea, let us two
Go to feast, as others do.
Tarts and custards, creams and cakes,
Are the junketts still at _Wakes_:
Unto which the tribes resort,
Where the businesse is the sport:
Morris-dancers thou shalt see,
Marian too in pagentrie:
And a Mimick to devise
Many grinning properties.
Players there will be, and those
Base in action as in clothes:
Yet with strutting they will please
The incurious villages.
Neer the dying of the day,
There will be a cudgell-play,
Where a coxcomb will be broke,
Ere a good _word_ can be spoke:
But the anger ends all here,
Drencht in ale, or drown'd in beere.
Happy Rusticks, best content
With the cheapest merriment:
And possesse no other feare,
Than to want the _Wake_ next yeare."[212:A]
Of the pedlars or hawkers who, in general, formed a constituent part of
these _village-wakes_ an accurate idea may be drawn from the character
of the pedlar Autolycus, in the _Winter's Tale_ of Shakspeare, who is
delineated with the poet's customary strength of pencil, rich humour,
and fidelity to nature. The wares in which he dealt are curiously
enumerated in the following passages:—
"_Serv._ He hath songs, for men, or women, of all sizes; no
milliner can so fit his customers with gloves[212:B]: he has
the prettiest love-songs for maids; he hath ribands of all
the colours i' the rainbow; points more than all the lawyers
in Bohemia can learnedly handle, though they come to him
by the gross; inkles, caddisses[212:C], cambricks, lawns:
why, he sings them over, as they were gods or goddesses: you
would think, a smock were a she-angel; he so chants to the
sleeve-hand, and the work about the square on't."[212:D]
"_Enter Autolycus, singing._
"Lawn, as white as driven snow;
Cyprus, black as e'er was crow;
Gloves as sweet as damask roses;
Masks for faces, and for noses;
Bugle bracelet, necklace-amber,
Perfume for a lady's chamber:
Golden quoifs, and stomachers,
For my lads to give their dears;
Pins and poking-sticks of steel,
What maids lack from head to heel:
Come, buy of me, come; come buy, come buy;
Buy, lads, or else your lasses cry;
Come buy, &c."[213:A]
At the close of the feast Autolycus is represented as re-entering,
and declaring "Ha, ha! what a fool honesty is! and trust, his sworn
brother, a very simple gentleman! I have sold all my trumpery; not
a counterfeit stone, not a riband, glass, pomander[213:B], brooch,
table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoe-tye, bracelet, horn-ring,
to keep my pack from fasting: they throng who should buy first; as
if my trinkets had been hallowed, and brought a benediction to the
buyer."[213:C]
In the North, the Village-Wake is still kept up, under the title of
_The Hopping_, a word derived from the Anglo-Saxon, and thus applied,
because dancing was the favourite amusement of these meetings. The
reign of Elizabeth, indeed, was marked by a peculiar propensity to
this exercise, and neither wake nor feast could be properly celebrated
without the country lads and lasses footing it on the green or yard, or
in bad weather, in the Manor-hall.
In an old play, entitled "A Woman Killed With Kindness," the production
of Thomas Heywood, and acted in 1604, is to be found a very humorous
description of one of these _Hoppings_, and particularly curious, as it
enumerates the names of the dances then in vogue among these rustic
performers. The poet, after remarking that now
————————— "the mad lads
And country lasses, every mother's child,
With nosegays and bride laces in their hats,
Dance all their country measures, rounds and jigs,"
thus introduces his couples:
"_Jenkin._ Come, Nick, take you Joan Miniver to trace withal;
Jack Slime, traverse you with Sisly Milk-pail; I will take Jane
Trubkin, and Roger Brickbat shall have Isabel Motley; and now
strike up; we'll have a crash here in the yard.—
_Jack Slime._ Foot it quickly; if the music overcome not my
melancholy, I shall quarrel; and if they do not suddenly strike
up, I shall presently strike them down.
_Jen._ No quarrelling, for God's sake: truly, if you do, I
shall set a knave between ye.
_Jack Slime._ I come to dance, not to quarrel; come, what shall
it be? Rogero?
_Jen._ Rogero! no; we will dance 'The Beginning of the World.'
_Sisly._ I love no dance so well, as 'John, come kiss me now.'
_Nicholas._ I have ere now deserved a cushion; call for the
Cushion-dance.
_R. Brick._ For my part, I like nothing so well as 'Tom Tyler.'
_Jen._ No; we'll have 'The hunting of the Fox.'
_Jack Slime._ 'The Hay! the Hay!' there's nothing like 'The
Hay.'
_Nich._ I have said, do say, and will say again.
_Jen._ Every man agree to have it as Nick says.
_All._ Content.
_Nich._ It hath been, it now is, and it shall be.
_Sisly._ What? Mr. Nicholas? What?
_Nich._ 'Put on your smock a Monday.'
_Jen._ So, the dance will come cleanly off: come, for God's
sake, agree of something; if you like not that, put it to the
musicians; or let me speak for all, and we'll have 'Sellenger's
Round.'
_All._ That, that, that!
_Nich._ No, I am resolved, thus it shall be. First take hands,
then take ye to your heels.
_Jen._ Why, would you have us run away?
_Nich._ No; but I would have you shake your heels. Music,
strike up.
_They dance._"[214:A]
The _Fair_ or greater wake was usually held, as hath been observed, in
a central situation, and its period and duration were, as at present,
proclaimed by law. It was a scene of extensive business as well as
of pleasure; for before provincial cities had attained either wealth
or consequence, all communication between them was difficult, and
neither the necessaries nor the elegances of life could be procured
but at stated times, and at fixed depôts. It was usual, therefore, to
go fifty or a hundred miles to one of these fairs, in order both to
purchase goods and accommodations for the ensuing year, and to dispose
of the superfluous products of art or cultivation. In the reign of
Henry VI. the monks of the priories of Maxtoke in Warwickshire, and
of Bicester in Oxfordshire, laid in their annual stores of common
necessaries at Sturbridge Fair in Cambridgeshire, at least one hundred
miles distant, and notwithstanding the two cities of Oxford and
Coventry were in their immediate neighbourhood.[215:A] In the reign of
Henry VIII., it appears, from the Household-Book of Henry Percy, fifth
Earl of Northumberland, that His Lordship's family were supplied with
necessaries for the whole year from fairs. "He that stands charged
with my Lordes House for the houll Yeir, if he maye possible, shall
be at all Faires, where the greice Emptions shall be boughte for the
House for the houll Yeir, as Wine, Wax, Beiffes, Muttons, Wheite and
Malt[215:B];" and, in the reign of Elizabeth, Tusser recommends to his
farmer the same plan, both for purchase and sale:
"At Bartilmewtide, or at Sturbridge faire,
buie that as is needful, thy house to repaire:
Then sel to thy profit, both butter and cheese,
who buieth it sooner, the more he shall leese."[215:C]
That this custom prevailed until the commencement of the eighteenth
century, and to nearly the same extent, is evident from a note on the
just quoted lines of Tusser by Mr. Hilman. "Sturbridge Fair," says
he, "stocks the country (namely, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex,) with
clothes, and all other houshold necessaries; and they (the farmers)
again, sell their butter and cheese, and whatever else remains on their
hands; nay, there the shopkeepers supply themselves with divers sorts
of commodities."
In the third year, indeed, of James I., Sturbridge Fair began to
acquire such celebrity, that hackney coaches attended it from London;
and it subsequently became so extensive that for several years not less
than sixty coaches have been known to ply at this fair, then esteemed
the largest in England.
Sturbridge Fair is still annually proclaimed, but now in such a state
of decline, that its extinction, at least in a commercial light, cannot
be far distant.
To these brief notices of wakes and fairs, it may be necessary to
subjoin a slight detail of the state of _Country-Inns_ and Ale-houses
during the age of Shakspeare.
To "take mine ease in mine inn" is a proverbial phrase, which the
poet has placed in the mouth of Falstaff[216:A], and which implies a
degree of comfort which has always been the peculiar attribute of an
English house of public entertainment. That it was not less felt and
enjoyed in Shakspeare's time than in our own, is very apparent from the
accounts which have been left us by Harrison and Fynes Moryson; the
former writing towards the close of the sixteenth, and the latter at
the commencement of the seventeenth century. These descriptions, which
are curiously faithful and highly interesting, paint the provincial
hostelries of England as in a most flourishing state, and, according
to Harrison, indeed, greatly superior to those which existed in the
metropolis.
"Those townes," says the historian, "that we call thorowfaires, have
great and sumptuous innes builded in them, for the receiving of such
travellers and strangers as passe to and fro. The manner of harbouring
wherein, is not like to that of some other countries, in which the
host or goodman of the house dooth chalenge a lordlie authoritie over
his ghests, but clean otherwise, sith every man may use his inne as
his owne house in England, and have for his monie how great or little
varietie of vittels, and what other service himselfe shall thinke
expedient to call for. Our innes are also verie well furnished with
naperie, bedding, and tapisserie, especiallie with naperie: for beside
the linnen used at the tables, which is commonlie washed dailie, is
such and so much as belongeth unto the estate and calling of the ghest.
Ech commer is sure to lie in cleane sheets, wherein no man hath béene
lodged since they came from the landresse, or out of the water wherein
they were last washed. If the traveller have an horsse, his bed dooth
cost him nothing, but if he go on foote he is sure to paie a penie for
the same: but whether he be horsseman or footman if his chamber be once
appointed he may carie the kaie with him, as of his owne house so long
as he lodgeth there. It he loose oughts whilest he abideth in the inne,
the host is bound by a generall custome to restore the damage, so that
there is no greater securitie anie where for travellers than in the
gretest ins of England." He then, after enumerating the depredations
to which travellers are subject on the road, completes the picture by
the following additional touches. "In all innes we have plentie of ale,
biere, and sundrie kinds of wine, and such is the capacitie of some of
them, that they are able to lodge two hundred or three hundred persons,
and their horsses at ease, and thereto with a verie short warning make
such provision for their diet, as to him that is unacquainted withall
may seeme to be incredible. And it is a world to see how ech owner of
them contendeth with other for goodnesse of interteinment of their
ghests, as about finesse and change of linnen, furniture of bedding,
beautie of rooms, service at the table, costlinesse of plate, strength
of drinke, varietie of wines, or well using of horsses. Finallie
there is not so much omitted among them as the gorgeousnes of their
verie signes at their doores, wherein some doo consume thirtie or
fortie pounds, a meere vanitie in mine opinion, but so vaine will they
needs be, and that not onelie to give some outward token of the inne
keeper's welth, but also to procure good ghests to the frequenting of
their houses, in hope there to be well used."[218:A]
"As soone as a passenger comes to an inne," remarks Moryson, "the
servants run to him, and one takes his horse and walkes him till he be
cold, then rubs him down, and gives him meat. Another servant gives
the passenger his private chamber, and kindles his fire; the third
pulls off his bootes and makes them cleane; then the host or hostess
visits him; and if he will eate with the hoste, or at a common table
with others, his meale will cost him sixpence, or in some places but
four-pence; but if he will eate in his chamber he commands what meate
he will according to his appetite; yea the kitchin is open to him to
order the meate to be dressed as he likes beste. After having eaten
what he pleases, he may, with credit, set by a part for the next day's
breakfast. His bill will then be written for him, and, should he object
to any charge, the host is ready to alter it."[218:B]
Taverns and ale-houses were frequently distinguished in Shakspeare's
time by a _bush or tuft of ivy_ at their doors; a custom which more
particularly prevailed in Warwickshire, and is still practised,
remarks Mr. Ritson, in this county "at statute-hirings, wakes, &c.
by people who sell ale at no other time."[218:C] The poet alludes
to this observance in his Epilogue to _As You Like It_:—"If it be
true," he says, "that _Good wine needs no bush_, 'tis true, that
a good play needs no epilogue: _Yet to good wine they do use good
bushes_."[218:D] Several old plays mention the same custom, and Bishop
Earle, in his _Microcosmography_, tells us that "A Tavern is a degree,
or (if you will) a pair of stairs above an ale-house, where men are
drunk with more credit and apology. If the vintner's rose be at door,
it is a sign sufficient, but the absence of this is supplied by the
_ivy-bush_."[218:E]
That houses of this description, the whole furniture of which,
according to Earle, consisted but of a stool, a table, and a [219:A]pot
de chambre, were as numerous two hundred years ago as at present, and
the scene of the same disgusting and intemperate orgies, is but too
apparent from the invective of Robert Burton:—"See the mischief," he
exclaims; "many men knowing that merry company is the only medicine
against melancholy, will therefore neglect their business, and in
another extream, spend all their dayes among good fellows, in a Tavern
or an Ale-house, and know not otherwise how to bestow their time but
in drinking; malt-worms, men fishes, or water-snakes, _Qui bibunt
solum ranarum more, nihil comedentes_, like so many frogs in a puddle.
'Tis their sole exercise to eat, and drink; to sacrifice to _Volupia_,
_Rumina_, _Edulica_, _Potina_, _Mellona_, is all their religion. They
wish for _Philoxenus'_ neck, _Jupiter's trinoctium_, and that the sun
would stand still as in _Joshua's_ time, to satisfie their lust, that
they might _dies noctesque pergræcari et bibere_. Flourishing wits,
and men of good parts, good fashion, and good worth, basely prostitute
themselves to every rogues company, to take tobacco and drink, to roar
and sing scurrile songs in base places.
"_Invenies aliquem cum percussore jacentem,
Permistum nautis, aut furibus, aut fugitivis._"
Juvenal.
"What _Thomas Erastus_ objects to _Paracelsus_, that he would lye
drinking all day long with carr-men and tapsters in a Brothel-house, is
too frequent amongst us, with men of better note: like _Timocreon_ of
_Rhodes_, _multa bibens, et multa vorans_, &c. They drown their wits
and seeth their brains in ale."[219:B]
Few ceremonies are better calculated to throw light on the manners and
customs of a country, than those attendant on WEDDINGS and BURIALS,
and with these, as they occurred in _rural life_, during the reigns of
Elizabeth and James, we shall close this chapter.
The style of courtship which prevailed in Shakspeare's time, may be
drawn, with considerable accuracy, from the numerous love-dialogues
interspersed throughout his plays. From these specimens not much
disparity, either in language or manner, appears to have existed
between the addresses of the courtier and the country-gentleman; the
female character was indeed, at this period, greatly less important
than at present; the blandishments of gallantry, and the elegancies of
compliment were little known, and consequently the expression of the
tender passion admitted of neither much variety nor much polish. The
amatory dialogues of Hamlet, Hotspur, and Henry the Fifth, are not more
refined than those which occur between Master Fenton and Anne Page,
in the _Merry Wives of Windsor_; between Lorenzo and Jessica in the
_Merchant of Venice_, and between Orlando and Rosalind, in _As You Like
It_. These last, which may be considered as instances taken from the
middle class of life, together with a few drawn from the lower rank
of rural manners, such as the courtship of Touchstone and Audrey, and
of Silvius and Phœbe, in _As You Like It_, will sufficiently apply
to the illustration of our present subject; but it must be remarked
that, in point of fancy, sentiment, and simplicity, the most pleasing
love-scenes in Shakspeare are those that take place between Romeo and
Juliet, and between Florizel and Perdita; the latter especially present
a most lovely and engaging picture, on the female side, of pastoral
naïveté and sweetness; and will, in part, serve to show, how far, in
the opinion of Shakspeare, refinement was, at that time, compatible, as
a just representation of nature, with cottage-life.
_Betrothing_ or _plighting of troth_, as an _affiance_ or _promise of
future marriage_, was still, there is reason to suppose, often observed
in Shakspeare's time, especially in the country, and as a _private_
rite. The interchange of rings was the ceremony used on this occasion,
to which the poet refers in his _Two Gentlemen of Verona_:
"_Julia._ Keep this remembrance for thy Julia's sake.
(_Giving a ring._)
_Pro._ Why then we'll make exchange; here take you this.
_Jul._ And seal the bargain with a holy kiss."[220:A]
The _public_ celebration of this contract, or what was termed
_espousals_[221:A], was formerly in this country, as well as upon the
continent, a constant preliminary to marriage. It usually took place in
the church, and though nearly, if not altogether, disused, towards the
close of the fifteenth century, is minutely described by Shakspeare in
his _Twelfth Night_. Olivia, addressing Sebastian, says,—
"Now go with me, and with this holy man,
Into the chantry by: there _before him_
And underneath that _consecrated roof
Plight me the full assurance of your faith_;
That my most jealous and too doubtful soul
May live at peace. He shall conceal it
Whiles you are willing it shall come to note;
What time we will our _celebration_ keep
According to my birth."[221:B]
A description of what passed at this ceremony of espousals or
betrothing, is given by the priest himself in the first scene of the
subsequent act, who calls it
"A contract of eternal bond of love
Confirm'd by _mutual joinder of your hands_,
Attested by the _holy close of lips_,
Strengthened by _interchangement of your rings_;
And all the ceremony of this compact
Seal'd in my function, by _my testimony_."[221:C]
These four observances, therefore; 1st, _the joining of hands_; 2dly,
the _mutually given kiss_; 3dly, the _interchangement of rings_; and
4thly, the _testimony of witnesses_: appear to have been essential
parts of the public ceremony of betrothing or espousals, which usually
preceded the marriage rite by the term of forty days. The oath indeed,
administered on this occasion, was to the following effect:—"You swear
by God and his holy saints herein and by all the saints of Paradise,
that you will take this woman whose name is N. to wife within forty
days, if holy church will permit." The priest then joining their
hands, said—"And thus you affiance yourselves;" to which the parties
answered,—"Yes, sir."[222:A] So frequently has Shakspeare referred to
this custom of troth-plighting, that, either privately or publickly,
we must conclude it to have been of common usage in his days: thus, in
_Measure for Measure_, Mariana says to Angelo,
"This is the _hand_, which with a _vow'd contract_,
Was fast belock'd in thine:"[222:B]
and then addressing the duke, she exclaims,
"As there is sense in truth, and truth in virtue,
I am _affianc'd_ this man's wife."[222:C]
So in _King John_, King Philip, and the Arch-duke of Austria,
encouraging the connection of the Dauphin and Blanch:
"_K. Phil._ It likes us well;—Young princes, _close your hands_.
_Aust._ And your _lips_ too; for, I am well assur'd,
That I did so, when I was first _assur'd_."[222:D]
One immoral consequence arising from this custom of public betrothing
was, that the parties, depending upon the priest as a witness,
frequently cohabited as man and wife. It would appear, indeed, from a
passage in Shakspeare, that the ceremony of troth-plight, at least
among the lower orders, was considered as a sufficient warrant for
intercourse of this kind; for he makes the jealous Leontes, in his
_Winter's Tale_, exclaim,
"My wife's a hobby horse; deserves a name
As rank as any flax-wench, that _puts to
Before her troth-plight_."[223:A]
We must not forget, however, to remark, while on the subject of
betrothing, that a singular proof of delicacy and attention to the fair
sex, on this occasion, during the sixteenth century, has been quoted by
Mr. Strutt, from a manuscript in the Harleian library, and which runs
thus: "By the civil law, whatever is given _ex sponsalitia largitate,
betwixt them that are promised in marriage_, hath a condition, for the
most part silent, that it may be had again if marriage ensue not; but
if the man should have had a kiss for his money, he should lose one
half of what he gave. Yet with the woman it is otherwise; for kissing
or not kissing, whatever she gave, she may have it again."[223:B]
Concerning the customs attendant on the celebration of the _marriage
rite_, among the middle and inferior ranks, in the country, during
the period which we are endeavouring to illustrate, much information,
of the description we want, may be found in Shakspeare and his
contemporaries.
The procession accompanying a rural bride, of some consequence, or of
the middle rank, to church, has been thus given us:—"The bride being
attired in a gown of sheep's russet, and a kirtle of fine worsted, her
hair attired with a 'billement of gold, and her hair as yellow as gold
hanging down behind her, which was curiously combed and plaited, she
was led to church between two sweet boys, with bride laces and rosemary
tied about their silken sleeves. There was a fair bride-cup of silver,
gilt, carried before her, wherein was a goodly branch of rosemary,
gilded very fair, hung about with silken ribbands of all colours.
Musicians came next, then a groupe of maidens, some bearing great
bride-cakes, others garlands of wheat finely gilded; and thus they
passed on to the church."[224:A]
Rosemary being supposed to strengthen the memory, was considered as an
emblem of fidelity, and, at this period, was almost as constantly used
at weddings as at funerals: "There's rosemary," says Ophelia, "that's
for remembrance."[224:B] Many passages, illustrative of this usage at
weddings, might be taken from our old plays, during the reign of James
I., but two or three will suffice.
—— "will I be _wed_ this morning,
Thou shalt not be there, nor once be graced with
A piece of _rosemary_."[224:C]
"Were the _rosemary_ branches dipp'd, and all
The hippocras and cakes eat and drunk off;
Were these two arms encompass'd with the hands
Of bachelors to lead me to the church."[224:D]
"_Phis._ Your master is to be married to-day?
_Trim._ Else all this _rosemary_ is lost."[224:E]
Of the peculiarities attending the marriage-ceremony within the
church, a pretty good idea may be formed from the ludicrous wedding
of Catharine and Petruchio in the _Taming of the Shrew_. It appears
from this description, that it was usual to drink wine at the altar
immediately after the service was closed, a custom which was followed
by the Bridegroom's saluting the bride.
"He calls for wine:—A health, quoth he; as if
He had been aboard, carousing to his mates
After a storm:—Quaff'd off the muscadel,
And threw the sops all in the sexton's face;—
This done, he took the bride about the neck;
And kiss'd her lips with such a clamorous smack,
That, at the parting, all the church did echo."[225:A]
In the account of the procession just quoted, we find that a bride-cup
was carried before the bride; out of this all the persons present,
together with the new-married couple, were expected to drink in the
church. This custom was prevalent, in Shakspeare's time, among every
description of people, from the regal head to the thorough-paced
rustic; accordingly we are informed, on the testimony of an assisting
witness, that the same ceremony took place at the marriage of the
Elector Palatine to King James's daughter, on the 14th day of February,
1612-13: there was "in conclusion," he relates, "a joy pronounced by
the king and queen, and seconded with congratulation of the lords there
present, which crowned with draughts of _Ippocras_ out of a _great
golden bowle_, as an health to the prosperity of the marriage, (began
by the prince Palatine and answered by the princess.) After which were
served up by six or seven barons so many bowles filled with wafers, so
much of that work was consummate."[225:B]
This _bride-cup_ or _bowl_ was, therefore, frequently termed the
_knitting_ or _contracting cup_: thus in Ben Jonson's _Magnetick
Lady_, _Compass_ says to _Practise_, after enquiring for a licence,
———————— "Mind
The Parson's pint t'engage him—
A _knitting-cup_ there must be;"[226:A]
and Middleton, in one of his Comedies, gives us the following line:—
"Even when my lip touch'd the _contracting cup_."[226:B]
The salutation of the Bride at the altar was a very ancient custom, and
is referred to by several of the contemporaries of Shakspeare; Marston,
for instance, represents one of his female characters saying,
"The _kisse thou gav'st me in the church_, here take."[226:C]
It was still customary at this period, to bless the bridal bed at
night, in order to dissipate the supposed illusions of the Devil; a
superstitious rite of which Mr. Douce has favoured us with the form,
taken from the Manual for the use of Salisbury in the 13th[226:D]
century. It is noticed by Chaucer also in his _Marchantes Tale_, and is
mentioned as one of the marriage-ceremonies in the "Articles ordained
by King Henry VII. for the regulation of his Household."[226:E]
Shakspeare alludes to this ridiculous fashion in the person of Oberon,
who tells his fairies,
"To the best _bride-bed_ will we,
Which by us shall blessed be."[226:F]
To this brief description of marriage-ceremonies, it will be necessary
to subjoin some account of those which accompanied the _mere rustic_
wedding, or _Bride-ale_; and fortunately we have a most curious
picture of the kind preserved by Laneham, in his _Letter on the Queens
Entertainment at Kenelworth Castle_, in 1575, one part of which was the
representation of a _country Bride-ale_ set in order in the Tylt-yard,
and exhibited in the great court of the castle. This grotesque piece
of pageantry, a faithful draught of rural costume, as it then existed,
must have afforded Her Majesty no small degree of amusement.
"Thus were they marshalled. First, all the lustie lads and bold
bachelors of the parish, suitably every wight with his blue buckram
bridelace upon a branch of green broom (cause rosemary is scant there)
tied on his left arm (for a that side lies the heart), and his alder
poll for a spear in his right hand, in martial order ranged on afore,
two and two in a rank: Some with a hat, some in a cap, some a coat,
some a jerkin, some for lightness in his doublet and his hose, clean
trust with a point afore: Some boots and no spurs, he spurs and no
boots, and he neither one nor t'other: One a saddle, another a pail
or a pannel fastened with a cord, for girts wear geazon: And these
to the number of a sixteen wight riding men and well beseem: But the
bridegroom foremost, in his father's tawny worsted jacket (for his
friends were fain that he should be a bridegroom before the _Queen_), a
fair straw hat with a capital crown, steeple-wise on his head: a pair
of harvest gloves on his hands, as a sign of good husbandry: A pen and
inkhorn at his back; for he would be known to be bookish: lame of a
leg, that in his youth was broken at foot-ball: Well beloved yet of his
mother, that lent him a new mufflar for a napkin that was tied to his
girdle for losing. It was no small sport to mark this minion in his
full appointment, that through good schoolation became as formal in his
action, as had he been a bridegroom indeed; with this special grace by
the way, that ever as he would have framed him the better countenance,
with the worse face he looked.
"Well, Sir, after these horsemen, a lively morrice-dance, according
to the ancient manner; six dancers, maid-marian, and the fool. Then
three pretty puzels, (maids or damsels from _pucelle_) as bright as
a breast of bacon, of a thirty year old a piece, that carried three
special spice-cakes of a bushel of wheat (they had it by measure out of
my _Lords_ backhouse), before the bride: Cicely with set countinance,
and lips so demurely simpering, as it had been a mare cropping of a
thistle. After these, a lovely lubber woorts[228:A], freckle-faced,
red-headed, clean trussed in his doublet and his hose taken up now
indeed by commission, for that he was so loth to come forward, for
reverence belike of his new cut canvass doublet; and would by his
good will have been but a gazer, but found to be a meet actor for
his office: That was to bear the bride-cup, formed of a sweet sucket
barrel, a faire-turned foot set to it, all seemly besilvered and
parcel gilt, adorned with a beautiful branch of broom, gayly begilded
for rosemary; from which, two broad bride laces of red and yellow
buckeram begilded, and gallantly streaming by such wind as there was,
for he carried it aloft: This gentle cup-bearer, yet had his freckled
physiognomy somewhat unhappily infested as he went, by the busy flies,
that flocked about the bride-cup for the sweetness of the sucket that
it savoured on; but he, like a tall fellow, withstood their malice
stoutly (see what manhood may do), beat them away, killed them by
scores, stood to his charge, and marched on in good order.
"Then followed the worshipful bride, led (after the country manner)
between two ancient parishioners, honest townsmen. But a stale
stallion, and a well spred, (hot as the weather was) God wot, and ill
smelling was she; a thirty-five year old, of colour brown-bay not very
beautiful indeed, but ugly, foul ill favoured; yet marvellous vain of
the office, because she heard say she should dance before the _Queen_,
in which feat she thought she would foot it as finely as the best:
Well, after this bride, came there by two and two, a dozen damsels for
bride-maids; that for favor, attyre, for fashion and cleanliness, were
as meet for such a bride as a treen ladle for a porridge-pot; more (but
for fear of carrying all clean) had been appointed, but these few were
enow."[229:A]
From a passage in Ben Jonson's _Tale of a Tub_, we learn that the dress
of the downright rustic, on his wedding day, was as follows:
"He had on a lether doublet, with long points,
And a paire of pin'd-up breech's, like pudding bags:
With yellow stockings, and his hat turn'd up
With a silver claspe, on his leere side."[229:B]
Of the ceremonies attendant on _Christenings_, it will be necessary to
mention two that prevailed at this period, and which have since fallen
into disuse. Shakspeare, who generally transfers the customs of his own
times to those periods of which he is treating, represents Henry VIII.
saying to Cranmer, whom he had appointed Godfather to Elizabeth,
"Come, come, my lord, you'd spare your _spoons_;"[230:A]
and again in the dialogue between the porter and his man:
"_Port._ On my Christian conscience, this one christening will
beget a thousand; here will be father, godfather, and all
together.
"_Man._ The _spoons_ will be the bigger, sir."[230:B]
In the days of Elizabeth and her predecessor, Mary, it was usual
for the sponsors at christenings to present the child with silver
spoons gilt, on the handles of which were engraved the figures of the
apostles, whence they were commonly called _apostle-spoons_: thus
Ben Jonson in _Bartholomew Fair_; "and all this for the hope of two
_apostle-spoons_, to suffer."[230:C] The opulent frequently gave a
complete set of spoons, namely, the twelve apostles; those less rich,
selected the four evangelists, and the poorer class were content to
offer a single spoon, or, at most, two, on which were carved their
favourite saint or saints.
Among the higher ranks, in the reign of Henry VIII. the practice at
christenings was to give _cups_ or bowls of gold or silver. Accordingly
Holinshed, describing the christening of Elizabeth, relates that "the
archbishop of Canturburie gave to the princesse a standing cup of gold:
the dutches of Norfolke gave to her a standing cup of gold, fretted
with pearle: the marchionesse of Dorset gave three gilt bolles, pounced
with a cover: and the marchionesse of Excester gave three standing
bolles graven, all gilt with a cover."[230:D]
In the Harleian MS. Vol. 6395, occurs a scarce pamphlet, entitled
_Merry Passages and Jeasts_, from which Dr. Birch transcribed the
following curious anecdote, as illustrative both of the custom of
offering spoons, and of the intimacy which subsisted between Shakspeare
and Jonson. "Shakspeare," says the author of this collection, who names
_Donne_ as his authority for the story, "was godfather to one of Ben
Jonson's children, and after the christening, being in deepe study,
Jonson came to cheer him up, and ask'd him why he was so melancholy: No
'faith Ben, says he, not I; but I have been considering a great while
what should be the fittest gift for me to bestow upon my godchild,
and I have resolved at last. I pr'ythee what? says he.—I'faith, Ben,
I'll give him a douzen good _latten_ (Latin) _spoons_, and thou shalt
translate them."[231:A] It was not until the close of the seventeenth
century, that this practice of spoon-giving at christenings ceased as a
general custom.
Another baptismal ceremony, now laid aside, was the use of the
chrisome, or white cloth, which was put on the child after the
performance of the sacred rite. To this usage Dame Quickly alludes
in describing the death of Falstaff, though, in accordance with her
character, she corrupts the term: "'A made a finer end, and went away,
an it had been any _christom_ child."[231:B]
Previous to the Reformation, oil was used, as well as water, in
baptism, or rather a kind of mixture of oil and balsam, which in the
Greek was called Χρισμα; hence the white cloth worn on this occasion,
as an emblem of purity, was denominated the _chrismale_ or
_chrism-cloth_. During the era of using this holy unction, with which
the priest made the sign of the cross, on the breast, shoulders, and
head of the child, the _chrismale_ was worn only for seven days, as
symbolical, it is said, of the seven ages of life; but after the
Reformation, the oil being omitted, it was kept on the child until the
purification of the mother, when, after the ceremony of churching, it
was returned to the minister, by whom it had been originally supplied.
If the child died during the month of wearing the chrisome-cloth, it
was buried in it, and children thus situated were called in the bills
of mortality _chrisoms_. This practice, which was common in the days
of Shakspeare, continued in use for nearly a century afterwards; for
Blount in his _Glossography_, 1678, explains the word _chrisoms_ as
meaning such children as die within the month of birth, because during
that time they use to wear the chrisom-cloth.[232:A]
We shall now proceed to consider some of the peculiarities accompanying
the _Funeral Rites_ of this period; and, in the first place, we shall
notice the _passing-bell_. This was rung at an early era of the church,
to solicit the prayers of all good christians for the welfare of the
soul _passing_ into another world: thus Durandus, who wrote towards the
close of the twelfth century, says: "Verum _aliquo moriente_, campanæ
debent pulsari, _ut populus hoc audiens, oret pro illo_:" "when any one
is _dying_, the bells must be tolled, _that the people may put up their
prayers for him_."[232:B] This custom of ringing a bell for a soul just
departing, which is _now_ relinquished, the bell only tolling after
death, we have reason to believe was still observed in Shakspeare's
time; for he makes Northumberland in _King Henry IV._ remark on the
"bringer of unwelcome news," that
——————————— "his tongue
Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,
Remember'd knolling a _departing_ friend."[232:C]
Another benefit formerly supposed to be derived from the sounding of
the passing-bell, and which, from the scene of Cardinal Beaufort's
death, was probably a part of Shakspeare's creed, consisted in the
discomfiture of the evil spirits, who were supposed to surround the bed
of the dying person; and who, terrified by the tolling of the holy
bell, were compelled to keep aloof; accordingly Durandus mentions it
as one of the effects of bell-ringing, _ut dæmones timentes[233:A]
fugiant_; and in the Golden Legende, printed by Wynkyn de Worde 1498,
it is observed that "the evill spirytes that ben in the regyon of the
ayre, doubte moche when they here the bells rongen: and this is the
cause why the belles ben rongen—to the ende that the feindes and
wycked spirytes shold be abashed and flee."[233:B]
That these opinions, indeed, relative to the _passing-bell_, continued
to prevail, as things of general belief, during the greater part of
the seventeenth century, is evident from the works of the pious Bishop
Taylor, in which are to be found several forms of prayer for the
souls of the _departing_, to be offered up _during the tolling of the
passing-bell_. In these the violence of Hell is deprecated, and it is
petitioned, that the spirits of darkness may be driven far from the
couch of the dying sinner.[233:C]
So common, indeed, was this practice, that almost every individual had
an exclamation or form of prayer ready to be recited on hearing the
passing-bell, whence the following proverbial rhyme:
"When the Bell begins to toll
Cry, _Lord have mercy on the soul_."
In the _Vittoria Corombona_ of Webster, this custom is alluded to in a
manner singularly wild and striking. Cornelia says:
"_Cor._ I'll give you a saying which my grand-mother
Was wont, when she _heard the bell_, to sing o'er unto her
lute.
_Ham._ Do an you will, do.
_Cor._ Call for the robin-red-breast, and the wren,
Since o'er shady groves they hover,
And with leaves and flowers do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men.
Call unto his funeral dole
The ant, the field-mouse, and the mole,
To raise him hillocks that shall keep him warm,
And (when gay tombs are robb'd) sustain no harm,
But keep the wolf far thence: that's foe to men,
For with his nails he'll dig them up again."
_Ancient British Drama_, vol. iii. p. 41.
Even so late as the commencement of the eighteenth century, it appears
that this custom of praying during the passing-bell still lingered in
some parts of the country; for Mr. Bourne, the first edition of whose
book was published in 1725, after vindicating the practice, adds,—"I
know several religious families in this place (Newcastle), and I hope
it is so in other places too, who always observe it, whenever the
melancholy season offers; and therefore it will at least sometimes
happen, when we put up our prayers constantly at the tolling of the
bell, that we shall pray for a soul departing. And though it be
granted, that it will oftener happen otherwise, as the regular custom
is so little followed; yet that can be no harmful praying for the
dead."[234:A]
Immediately after death a ceremony commenced, the most offensive
part of which has not been laid aside for more than half a century.
This was called the _Licke_ or _Lake-wake_, a term derived from the
Anglo-Saxon _Lic_ a corpse, and _Wæcce_ a _wake_ or _watching_. It
originally consisted of a meeting of the friends and relations of the
deceased, for the purpose of watching by the body from the moment
it ceased to breathe, to its exportation to the grave; a duty which
was at first performed with solemnity and piety, accompanied by the
singing of psalms and the recitation of the virtues of the dead. It
speedily, however, degenerated into a scene of levity, of feasting, and
intoxication; to such a degree, indeed, that it was thought necessary
at a provincial synod held in London during the reign of Edward III. to
issue a canon for the restriction of the watchers to the near relations
and most intimate friends of the deceased, and only to such of these
as offered to repeat a fixed number of psalms for the benefit of his
soul.[235:A] To this regulation little attention, we apprehend, was
paid; for the Lake-wake appears to have been observed as a meeting of
revelry during the whole of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries;
and Mr. Bourne, so late as the year 1725, declares, that it was _then_
"a scene of sport and drinking and lewdness."[235:B]
In Scotland during the period of which we are treating, and even down
to the rebellion of 1745, the Lake-wake was observed with still greater
form and effect than in England, though not often with a better moral
result. Mr. Pennant describing it, when speaking of the Highland
customs, under the mistaken etymology of _Late_-wake, says, that the
evening after the death of any person, the relations or friends of
the deceased met at the house, attended by a bag-pipe or fiddle; the
nearest of kin, be it wife, son, or daughter, opened a melancholy ball,
dancing and _greeting_, i. e. crying violently at the same time; and
this continued till day-light, but with such gambols and frolics among
the younger part of the company, that the loss which occasioned them
was often more than supplied by the consequences of that night.[235:C]
Mrs. Grant, however, in her lately published work on the Superstitions
of the Highlanders, has given us a more favourable account of this
ancient custom, which she has connected with a wild traditionary tale
of much moral interest.
A peasant of Glen Banchar, a dreary and secluded recess in the central
Highlands, "was fortunate in all respects but one. He had three very
fine children, who all, in succession, died after having been weaned,
though, before, they gave every promise of health and firmness. Both
parents were much afflicted; but the father's grief was clamorous and
unmanly. They resolved that the next should be suckled for two years,
hoping, by this, to avoid the repetition of such a misfortune. They did
so; and the child, by living longer, only took a firmer hold of their
affections, and furnished more materials for sorrowful recollection. At
the close of the second year, he followed his brothers; and there were
no bounds to the affliction of the parents.
"There are, however, in the economy of Highland life, certain duties
and courtesies which are indispensable; and for the omission of which
nothing can apologise. One of those is, to call in all their friends,
and feast them at the time of the greatest family distress. The
death of the child happened late in spring, when sheep were abroad
in the more inhabited _straths_; but, from the blasts in that high
and stormy region, were still confined to the cot. In a dismal snowy
evening, the man, unable to stifle his anguish, went out, lamenting
aloud, for a lamb to treat his friends with at the _Late-wake_. At
the door of the cot, however, he found a stranger standing before the
entrance. He was astonished, in such a night, to meet a person so far
from any frequented place. The stranger was plainly attired; but had
a countenance expressive of singular mildness and benevolence, and,
addressing him in a sweet, impressive voice, asked him what he did
there amidst the tempest. He was filled with awe, which he could not
account for, and said, that he came for a lamb. 'What kind of lamb do
you mean to take?' said the stranger. 'The very best I can find,' he
replied, 'as it is to entertain my friends; and I hope you will share
of it.'—'Do your sheep make any resistance when you take away the
lamb, or any disturbance afterwards?'—'Never,' was the answer. 'How
differently am I treated!' said the traveller. 'When I come to visit
my sheepfold, I take, as I am well entitled to do, the best lamb to
myself; and my ears are filled with the clamour of discontent by these
ungrateful sheep, whom I have fed, watched, and protected.'
"He looked up in amaze; but the vision was fled. He went however for
the lamb, and brought it home with alacrity. He did more: It was the
custom of these times—a custom, indeed, which was not extinct till
after 1745—for people to dance at _Late-wakes_. It was a mournful kind
of movement, but still it was dancing. The nearest relation of the
deceased often began the ceremony weeping; but did, however, begin it,
to give the example of fortitude and resignation. This man, on other
occasions, had been quite unequal to the performance of this duty; but
at this time he, immediately on coming in, ordered music to begin,
and danced the solitary measure appropriate to such occasions. The
reader must have very little sagacity or knowledge of the purport and
consequences of visions, who requires to be told, that many sons were
born, lived, and prospered afterwards in this reformed family."[237:A]
Some vestiges of the _Lake-wake_ still remain at this day in remote
parts of the north of England, especially at the period of _laying
out_, or _streeking_ the corpse, as it is termed; and here it may be
remarked, that in the time of Shakspeare, the practice of _winding the
corse_, or putting on the _winding-sheet_, was a ceremony of a very
impressive kind, and accompanied by the solemn melody of dirges. Some
lines strikingly illustrative of this pious duty, are to be found in
the _White Devil; or Vittoria Corombona_ of Webster, published in 1612.
Francisco, Duke of Florence, tells Flaminio,
"I found them _winding_ of Marcello's corse;
And there is such a solemn melody,
'Tween doleful songs, tears, and sad elegies;
Such as old grandames, watching by the dead,
Were wont to outwear the nights with; that, believe me,
I had no eyes to guide me forth the room,
They were so o'ercharged with water.——
_Cornelia, the Moor, and three other ladies, discovered WINDING
Marcello's corse. A SONG._
_Cor._ This rosemary is wither'd, pray get fresh;
I would have these herbs grow up in his grave,
When I am dead and rotten. Reach the bays,
I'll tie a garland here about his head:
'Twill keep my boy from lightning. This _sheet_
I have kept this twenty years, and every day
Hallow'd it with my prayers; I did not think
He should have worn it."[237:B]
Another exquisite passage of this fine old poet alludes to the same
practice—a villain of ducal rank, expiring from the effect of poison,
exclaims,
"O thou soft natural death! that art joint-twin
To sweetest slumber!—no rough-bearded comet
Stares on thy mild departure; the dull owl
Beats not against thy casement; the hoarse wolf
Scents not thy carion. _Pity winds thy corse_,
Whilst horror waits on princes."[238:A]
After the funeral was over, it was customary, among all ranks, to
give a cold, and sometimes a very ostentatious, entertainment to the
mourners. To this usage Shakspeare refers, in the character of Hamlet:
"Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the _funeral bak'd meats_
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables,"
a passage which Mr. Collins has illustrated by the following quotation
from a contemporary writer: "His corpes was with funerall pompe
conveyed to the church, and there sollemnly enterred, nothing omitted
which necessitie or custom could claime; a sermon, a _banquet_, and
like observations."[238:B]
The funeral feast is not yet extinct; it may occasionally be met
with in places remote from the metropolis, and more particularly in
the northern counties among some of the wealthy yeomanry. Mr. Douce
considers the practice as "certainly borrowed from the _cœna feralis_
of the Romans," and adds, "in the North this feast is called an _arval_
or _arvil supper_; and the loaves that are sometimes distributed among
the poor, _arval-bread_. Not many years since one of these arvals was
celebrated in a village in Yorkshire at a public-house, the sign of
which was the family arms of a nobleman whose motto is VIRTUS POST
FUNERA VIVIT. The undertaker, who, though a clerk, was no scholar,
requested a gentleman present to explain to him the meaning of these
Latin words, which he readily and facetiously did in the following
manner; _Virtus_, a parish clerk, _vivit_, lives well, _post funera_,
at an _arval_. The latter word is apparently derived from some lost
Teutonic term that indicated a funeral pile on which the body was
burned in times of Paganism."[239:A]
A few observations must still be added on the pleasing, though now
nearly obsolete, practice of carrying ever-greens and garlands at
funerals, and of decorating the grave with flowers. There is something
so strikingly emblematic, so delightfully soothing in these old
rites, that though the prototype be probably heathen, their disuse
is to be regretted. "The carrying of ivy, or laurel, or rosemary, or
some of those ever-greens," says Bourne, "is an emblem of the soul's
immortality. It is as much as to say, that though the body be dead, yet
the soul is ever-green and always in life: it is not like the body, and
those other greens which die and revive again at their proper seasons,
no autumn nor winter can make a change in it, but it is unalterably the
same, perpetually in life, and never dying.
"The Romans, and other heathens upon this occasion, made use of
cypress, which being once cut, will never flourish nor grow any more,
as an emblem of their dying for ever, and being no more in life.
But instead of that, the antient Christians used the things before
mentioned; they laid them under the corps in the grave, to signify,
that they who die in Christ, do not cease to live. For though, as to
the body they die to the world, yet as to their souls, they live to God.
"And as the carrying of these ever-greens is an emblem of the soul's
immortality, so it is also of the resurrection of the body: for as
these herbs are not entirely plucked up, but only cut down, and will,
at the returning season, revive and spring up again; so the body, like
them, is but cut down for a while, and will rise and shoot up again at
the resurrection."[239:B]
The _bay_ and _rosemary_ were the plants usually chosen, the former
as being said to revive from the root, when apparently dead, and the
latter from its supposed virtue in strengthening the memory:
"There's rosemary, that's for remembrance."[240:A]
Shakspeare has frequently noticed these ever-greens, garlands, and
flowers, as forming a part of the tributary rites of the departed, as
elegant memorials of the dead: at the funeral of Juliet he adopts the
rosemary:—
"Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary
On this fair corse, and as the custom is,
In all her best array bear her to church."[240:B]
_Garlands_ of flowers were formerly either hung up in country-churches,
as a mark of honour and esteem, over the seats of those who had died
virgins, or were remarkable for chastity and fidelity, or were placed
in the form of crowns on the coffins of the deceased, and buried with
them, for the same purpose. Of these crowns and garlands, which were in
frequent use until the commencement of the last century, a very curious
account has been given by a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine.
"In this nation (as well as others)," he observes, "by the abundant
zeal of our ancestors, virginity was held in great estimation; insomuch
that those which died in that state were rewarded, at their deaths,
with a garland or crown on their heads, denoting their triumphant
victory over the lusts of the flesh. Nay, this honour was extended even
to a widow that had enjoyed but one husband (saith Weever in his Fun.
Mon. p. 12.) And, in the year 1733, the present clerk of the parish
church of Bromley in Kent, by his digging a grave in that church-yard,
close to the east end of the chancel wall, dug up one of these crowns,
or garlands, which is most artificially wrought in fillagree work with
gold and silver wire, in resemblance of myrtle (with which plant the
funebrial garlands of the ancients were composed) whose leaves are
fastened to hoops of large wire of iron, now something corroded with
rust, but both the gold and silver remains to this time very little
different from its original splendor. It was also lined with cloth of
silver, a piece of which, together with part of this curious garland, I
keep as a choice relic of antiquity.
"Besides these crowns, the ancients had also their depository garlands,
the use of which were continued even till of late years, (and
perhaps are still retained in many parts of this nation, for my own
knowledge of these matters extends not above twenty or thirty miles
round London,) which garlands at the funerals of the deceased, were
carried solemnly before the corpse by two maids, and afterward hung
up in some conspicuous place within the church, in memorial of the
departed person, and were (at least all that I have seen) made after
the following manner, viz. the lower rim or circlet, was a broad hoop
of wood, whereunto was fixed, at the sides thereof, part of two other
hoops crossing each other at the top, at right angles, which formed the
upper part, being about one third longer than the width; these hoops
were wholly covered with artificial flowers of paper, dyed horn, or
silk, and more or less beauteous, according to the skill and ingenuity
of the performer. In the vacancy of the inside, from the top, hung
white paper, cut in form of gloves, whereon was wrote the deceased's
name, age, &c. together with long slips of various coloured paper, or
ribbons. These were many times intermixed with gilded or painted empty
shells of blown eggs, as farther ornaments; or, it may be, as emblems
of the bubbles or bitterness of this life; whilst other garlands had
only a solitary hour-glass hanging therein, as a more significant
symbol of mortality.
"About forty years ago, these garlands grew much out of repute, and
were thought, by many, as very unbecoming decorations for so sacred a
place as the church; and at the reparation, or new beautifying several
churches, where I have been concerned, I was obliged, by order of
the minister and churchwardens, to take the garlands down, and the
inhabitants were strictly forbidden to hang up any more for the future.
Yet, notwithstanding, several people, unwilling to forsake their
ancient and delightful custom, continued still the making of them, and
they were carried at the funerals, as before, to the grave, and put
therein, upon the coffin, over the face of the dead; this I have seen
done in many places." Bromley in Kent. _Gentleman's Magazine for June
1747._
Shakspeare has alluded to these maiden rites in _Hamlet_, where the
priest, at the interment of Ophelia, says,
—— "Here she is allow'd her virgin _crants_,
Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home
Of bell and burial."[242:A]
The term _crants_, observes Johnson, on the authority of a
correspondent, is the German word for _garlands_, and was probably
retained by us from the Saxons.[242:B]
The _strewments_ mentioned in this passage refer to a pleasing custom,
which is still, we believe, preserved in Wales, of scattering flowers
over the graves of the deceased.[242:C] It is manifestly copied from
the funeral rites of the Greeks and Romans, and was early introduced
into the Christian church; for St. Jerom, in an epistle to his friend
Pammachius on the death of his wife, remarks, "whilst other husbands
strawed violets and roses, and lilies, and purple flowers, upon the
graves of their wives, and comforted themselves with such like offices,
Pammachius bedewed her ashes and venerable bones with the balsam of
alms[242:D];" and Mr. Strutt, in his _Manners and Customs of England_,
tells us, "that of old it was usual to adorn the graves of the deceased
with roses and other flowers (but more especially those of lovers,
round whose tombs they have often planted rose trees): Some traces," he
observes, "of this ancient custom are yet remaining in the church-yard
of Oakley, in Surry, which is full of rose trees planted round the
graves."[243:A]
Many of the dramas of our immortal bard bear testimony to his
partiality for this elegantly affectionate tribute; a practice which
there is reason to suppose was in the country at least not uncommon in
his days: thus Capulet, in _Romeo and Juliet_, observes,
"Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse;"[243:B]
and the Queen in _Hamlet_ is represented as performing the ceremony at
the grave of Ophelia:
"_Queen._ Sweets to the sweet: Farewell!
(_Scattering Flowers._)
I hop'd, thou should'st have been my Hamlet's wife;
I thought, thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,
And not have _strew'd thy grave_."[243:C]
It was considered, likewise, as a duty incumbent on the survivors,
annually to plant shrubs and flowers upon, and to tend and keep neat,
the turf which covered the remains of their beloved friends; in
accordance with this usage, Mariana is drawn in _Pericles_ decorating
the tomb of her nurse:
————— "I will rob Tellus of her weed,
To strew thy green with flowers: the yellows, blues,
The purple violets, and marigolds,
Shall, as a chaplet, hang upon thy grave,
While summer days do last;"[243:D]
and Arviragus, in _Cymbeline_, pathetically exclaims,
—————— "With fairest flowers,
Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,
I'll sweeten thy sad grave: Thou shall not lack
The flower, that's like thy face, pale primrose; nor
The azur'd hare-bell, like thy veins; no, nor
The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander,
Out-sweeten'd not thy breath."[244:A]
The only relic which yet exists in this country of a custom so
interesting, is to be found in the practice of protecting the hallowed
mound by twigs of osier, an attention to the mansions of the dead,
which is still observable in most of the country-church-yards in the
south of England.
We have thus advanced in pursuit of our object, namely, _A Survey of
Country Life during the Age of Shakspeare_, as far as a sketch of
its manners and customs, resulting from a brief description of rural
characters, holidays, and festivals, wakes, fairs, weddings, and
burials, will carry us; and we shall now proceed with the picture, by
adding some account of those diversions of our ancestors which could
not with propriety find a place under any of the topics that have been
hitherto noticed; endeavouring in our progress to render the great
dramatic bard the chief illustrator of his own times.
FOOTNOTES:
[209:A] Brand on Bourne's Antiquities, p. 333.
[209:B] Mr. Strutt, in a quotation from an old MS. legend of St. John
the Baptist, preserved in Dugdale's Warwickshire, tells us,—"In
the beginning of holi churche, it was so that the pepul cam to the
chirche with candellys brinnyng, and wold _wake_ and comme with Light
toward the chirche in their devocions, and after they fell to lecherie
and songs, daunces, harping, piping, and also to glotony and sinne,
&c."—Sports and Pastimes, p. 322.
"It appears," says Mr. Brand, "that in antient times the parishioners
brought _rushes_ at the Feast of Dedication, wherewith to strew the
Church, and from that circumstance the Festivity itself has obtained
the name of _Rush-bearing_, which occurs for a Country-Wake in a
Glossary to the Lancashire dialect."—Brand ap. Ellis, vol. i. p. 436.
[210:A] Hilman's Tusser, p. 81.
[211:A] Bourne's Antiquit. Vulg. p. 330.
[211:B] Triumph of Pleasure, p. 23.
[211:C] Chalmers's Poets, vol. iv. p. 378. Poly-Olbion, Song xxvii.
[212:A] Hesperides, p. 300, 301.
[212:B] In Shakspeare's time the business of the milliner was
transacted by men.
[212:C] _Caddisses_,—a kind of narrow worsted galloon.
[212:D] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 345. 347, 348.
[213:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 349.
[213:B] _Pomander_,—a little ball of perfumes worn either in the
pocket or about the neck.
[213:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 375, 376.
[214:A] Ancient British Drama, vol. ii. p. 435, 436. The third edition
of _A Woman Killed With Kindness_, was printed in 4to. 1617.
[215:A] Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. i. p. 279. note.
[215:B] Establishment and Expences of the Houshold of Henry Percy, the
fifth Earl of Northumberland, A. D. 1512. p. 407.
[215:C] Hilman's Tusser, p. 110.
[216:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xi. p. 358.
[218:A] Holinshed's Chronicles, vol. i. p. 414, 415. Edit. of 1807.
[218:B] Moryson's Itinerary, part iii. p. 151. folio. London, 1617.
[218:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. viii. p. 189. note.
[218:D] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. viii. p. 189, 190.
[218:E] Bliss's edition, 1811. p. 37, 38.
[219:A] Earle's Microcosmography, p. 38.
[219:B] Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, 8th edit. p. 191.
[220:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iv. p. 213. Act ii. sc. 2.
[221:A] "Vincent de Beauvais, a writer of the 13th century, in his
_Speculum historiale_, lib. ix. c. 70., has defined _espousals to
be a contract of future marriage_, made either by a simple promise,
by earnest or security given, by a ring, or by an oath." Douce's
Illustrations, vol. i. p. 109.
[221:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 395. Act iv. sc. 3.
[221:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 403. Act v. sc. 1.
[222:A] Douce's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 113.
[222:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 395.
[222:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 396.
[222:D] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 405. Here _assur'd_ is taken
in the sense of _affianced_ or _contracted_. If necessary, many more
instances of betrothing, and troth-plighting, might be brought forward
from our author's dramas.
[223:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 240.
[223:B] Strutt's Manners and Customs, vol. iii. p. 155.
[224:A] History of Jack of Newbury, 4to. chap. ii.
[224:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 291.
[224:C] Ram Alley, or Merry Tricks, by Barry, 1611. Vide Ancient
British Drama, vol. ii.
[224:D] Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady, 1616.
[224:E] A Faire Quarrel, by Middleton and Rowley, 1617. Besides
rosemary, flowers of various kinds were frequently strewn before the
bride as she passed to church; a custom alluded to in a well-known line
of Shakspeare,
"Our _Bridal Flowers_ serve for a buried corse:"
and more explicitly depicted in the following passage from one of his
contemporaries:—
"_Adriana._ Come straw apace, Lord shall I never live
To walke to Church on flowers? O 'tis fine,
To see a Bride trip it to Church so lightly,
As if her new Choppines would scorne to bruise
A silly flower!"
Barry's Ram Alley, or Merry Tricks,
act v. sc. 1. 4to. 1611.
[225:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 114, 115, 116. Act iii. sc. 2.
[225:B] Finet's Philoxenis, 1656, p. 11. quoted by Mr. Reed in his
Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 115. note.
[226:A] Folio edit. p. 44. Act iv. sc. 2.
[226:B] _No Wit, no Help like a Womans_, 8vo. 1657. Middleton was
contemporary with Shakspeare, and commenced a dramatic writer in 1602.
[226:C] _Insatiate Countess_, 4to. 1603.
[226:D] Douce's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 199.
[226:E] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iv. p. 459. note, by Steevens.
[226:F] _Midsummer-Night's Dream_, act v. sc. 2. Vide Reed's
Shakspeare, vol. iv. p. 459.
[228:A] _Woorts_; of this word I know not the precise meaning; but
suppose it is meant to imply _plodded_ or _stumbled on_.
[229:A] Nichols's Queen Elizabeth's Progresses, vol. i.—Laneham's
Letter, p. 18, 19, 20.
[229:B] Jonson's Works, fol. edit. of 1640, vol. ii. A Tale of a Tub,
p. 72.—Much of the spirit and costume of the _rural wedding_ of the
sixteenth century continued to survive until within these eighty years.
"I have received," says Mr. Brand, who wrote in 1776, "from those who
have been present at them, the following account of the customs used at
_vulgar Northern Weddings_, about _half a century ago_:—
"The young women in the neighbourhood, with bride-favours (knots of
ribbands) at their breasts, and nosegays in their hands, attended the
Bride on her wedding-day in the morning.—_Fore-Riders_ announced
with shouts the arrival of the Bridegroom; after a kind of breakfast,
at which the _bride-cakes_ were set on and the _barrels broached_,
they walked out towards the church.—The Bride was led by _two young
men_; the Bridegroom by _two young women_: Pipers preceded them, while
the crowd tossed up their hats, shouted and clapped their hands. An
indecent custom prevailed after the ceremony, and that too before the
altar:—Young men strove who could first _unloose_, or rather pluck off
the Bride's garters: Ribbands supplied their place on this occasion;
whosoever was so fortunate as to tear them thus off from her leggs,
bore them about the church in triumph.
"It is still usual for the young men present to _salute_ the _Bride_
immediately after the performing of the marriage service.
"Four, with their horses, were waiting without; they _saluted_ the
Bride at the church gate, and immediately mounting, contended who
should first carry home the good news, and WIN what they call the
KAIL;" i. e. _a smoking prize of spice-broth_, which stood ready
prepared to reward the victor in this singular kind of race.
"Dinner succeeded; to that dancing and supper; after which a _posset_
was made, of which the Bride and Bridegroom were always to taste
first.—The men departed the room till the Bride was undressed by her
_maids_, and put to bed; the Bridegroom in his turn was undressed
by his men, and the ceremony concluded with the well-known rite of
_throwing the stocking_."—Bourne's Antiquitates Vulg. apud Brand, p.
371, 372, 373. edit. 1810.
[230:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xv. p. 197.
[230:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xv. p. 203.
[230:C] Ben Jonson's Works, fol. edit. 1640. vol. ii. p. 6.
[230:D] Holinshed's Chronicles, vol. iii. p. 787. edit. 1808.
[231:A] Capell's Notes and Various Readings on Shakspeare, vol. i.; and
Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xv. p. 198.—L'Estrange, a nephew to Sir Roger
L'Estrange, appears to have been the compiler of these anecdotes. Of
the truth of the story, however, as far as it relates to Shakspeare and
Jonson, there is reason to entertain much doubt.
[231:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 343. Act ii. sc. 3.
[232:A] Vide Douce's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 488.; and Reed's
Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 345.
[232:B] Vide Rationale Divinorum Officiorum: the first edition was
printed in 1459.
[232:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 16.
[233:A] Durandi Rational. lib. i. c. 4.
[233:B] For an account of three editions of De Worde's Golden Legende,
see Dibdin's Typographical Antiquit. vol. ii. p. 73.
[233:C] These forms of prayer are transcribed by Bourne in his
Antiquitates Vulgares.—Vide Brand's edit. p. 10. Bishop Taylor died in
1667.
[234:A] Bourne apud Brand, p. 9.
[235:A] Collier's Ecclesiastical History, vol. i. p. 546.
[235:B] Antiquitates Vulgares apud Brand, p. 23.
[235:C] Tour in Scotland.
[237:A] Essays on the Superstitions of the Highlanders of Scotland,
vol. i. p. 184-188.
[237:B] Ancient British Drama, vol. iii. p. 40.
[238:A] Ancient British Drama, vol. iii. p. 36.
[238:B] The Tragique Historie of the Faire Valeria of London, 1598.
Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 43. note.
[239:A] Douce's Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 202, 203.
[239:B] Bourne's Antiquitates Vulg. p. 33, 34.
[240:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 294.
[240:B] Ibid. vol. xx. p. 217, 218.
[242:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 335, 336.
[242:B] Ibid. p. 336. note.
[242:C] See Pratt's Gleanings in Wales, and Mason's Elegy in a
Church-yard in Wales.
[242:D] Bourne's Antiq. apud Brand, p. 45.
[243:A] Anglo Saxon Æra, vol. i. p. 69.
[243:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xx. p. 219.
[243:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 337.
[243:D] Ibid. vol. xxi. p. 297, 298.
[244:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 576.—In Mr. Malkin's
notes on Mason's Elegy, we have the following elegant and pleasing
description of this pathetic custom, as it still exists in Wales:—"It
is a very antient and general practice in Glamorgan," he remarks, "to
plant flowers on the graves; so that many Church-yards have something
like the splendour of a rich and various parterre. Besides this it is
usual to strew the graves with flowers and ever-greens, within the
Church as well as out of it, thrice at least every year, on the same
principle of delicate respect as the stones are whitened.
"No flowers or ever-greens are permitted to be planted on graves but
such as are sweet-scented: the pink and polyanthus, sweet williams,
gilliflowers, and carnations, mignionette, thyme, hyssop, camomile,
rosemary, make up the pious decoration of this consecrated garden.——
"The white rose is always planted on a virgin's tomb. The red rose is
appropriated to the grave of any person distinguished for goodness, and
especially benevolence of character.
"In the Easter week most generally the graves are newly dressed, and
manured with fresh earth, when such flowers or ever-greens as may be
wanted or wished for are planted. In the Whitsuntide Holidays, or
rather the preceding week, the graves are again looked after, weeded,
and other wise dressed, or, if necessary, planted again.—This work the
nearest relations of the deceased always do with their own hands, and
never by servants or hired persons.—
"When a young couple are to be married, their ways to the Church are
strewed with sweet-scented flowers and ever-greens. When a young
unmarried person dies, his or her ways to the grave are also strewed
with sweet flowers and ever-greens; and on such occasions it is the
usual phrase, that those persons are going to their nuptial beds, not
to their graves.—None ever molest the flowers that grow on graves;
for it is deemed a kind of sacrilege to do so. A relation or friend
will occasionally take a pink, if it can be spared, or a sprig of
thyme, from the grave of a beloved or respected person, to wear it in
remembrance; but they never take much, lest they should deface the
growth on the grave.—
"These elegant and highly pathetic customs of South Wales make the
best impression on the mind. What can be more affecting than to see
all the youth of both sexes in a village, and in every village through
which the corpse passes, dressed in their best apparel, and strewing
with sweet-scented flowers the ways along which one of their beloved
neighbours goes to his or her marriage-bed."
Malkin's Scenery, Antiquities, and Biography of
South Wales, 4to. 1804. p. 606.