Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 72

To the best bride-bed will we, Which by us shall blessed be; And the issue there create Ever shall be fortunate."

[721] "Brides and Bridals," vol. i. p. 98; see Brand's "Pop.

Antiq.," vol. ii. p. 175.

Steevens, in ill.u.s.tration of this custom, quotes from Chaucer's "The Merchant's Tale" (ed. Tyrwhitt), line 9693:

"And when the bed was with the preest yblessed."

The formula for this curious ceremony is thus given in the Manual for the use of Salisbury: "Nocte vero sequente c.u.m sponsus et sponsa ad lectum pervenerint, accedat sacerdos et benedicat thalamum, dicens.

Benedic, Domine, thalamum istum et omnes habitantes in eo; ut in tua pace consistant, et in tua voluntate permaneant: et in tuo amore vivant et senescant et multiplicentur in longitudine dierum. Per Dominum.-Item benedictio super lectum. Benedic, Domine, hoc cubiculum, respice, quinon dormis neque dormitas. Qui custodis Israel, custodi famulos tuos in hoc lecto quiescentes ab omnibus fantasmaticis demonum illusionibus. Custodi eos vigilantes ut in preceptis tuis meditentur dormientes, et te per soporem sentiant; ut hic et ubique depensionis tuae muniantur auxilio.

Per Dominum.-Deinde fiat benedictio super eos in lecto tantum c.u.m oremus. Benedicat Deus corpora vestra et animas vestras; et det super eos benedictionem sicut benedixit Abraham, Isaac, et Jacob, Amen. His peractis aspergat eos aqua benedicta, et sic discedat et dimittat eos in pace."[722]

[722] See Douce's "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," pp. 123, 124.

In the French romance of Melusine, the bishop who marries her to Raymondin blesses the nuptial-bed. The ceremony is there presented in a very ancient cut, of which Douce has given a copy. The good prelate is sprinkling the parties with holy water. It appears that, occasionally, during the benediction, the married couple only sat on the bed; but they generally received a portion of the consecrated bread and wine. It is recorded in France, that, on frequent occasions, the priest was improperly detained till midnight, while the wedding guests rioted in the luxuries of the table, and made use of language that was extremely offensive to the clergy. It was therefore ordained, in the year 1577, that the ceremony of blessing the nuptial-bed should for the future be performed in the day-time, or at least before supper, and in the presence of the bride and bridegroom, and of their nearest relations only.

On the morning after the celebration of the marriage, it was formerly customary for friends to serenade a newly married couple, or to greet them with a morning song to bid them good-morrow. In "Oth.e.l.lo" (iii. 1) this custom is referred to by Ca.s.sio, who, speaking of Oth.e.l.lo and Desdemona, says to the musicians:

"Masters, play here; I will content your pains: Something that's brief; and bid, 'Good morrow, general.'"

According to Cotgrave, the morning-song to a newly married woman was called the "hunt's up." It has been suggested that this may be alluded to by Juliet (iii. 5), who, when urging Romeo to make his escape, tells him:

"Some say the lark and loathed toad change eyes; O, now I would they had chang'd voices too!

Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray, Hunting thee hence with hunt's-up to the day.

O, now be gone."

In olden times torches were used at weddings-a practice, indeed, dating as far back as the time of the Romans. From the following lines in Herrick's "Hesperides," it has been suggested that the custom once existed in this country:

"_Upon a maid that dyed the day she was marryed._

That morne which saw me made a bride, The ev'ning witnest that I dy'd.

Those holy lights, wherewith they guide Unto the bed the bashful bride, Serv'd but as tapers for to burne And light my reliques to their urne.

This epitaph which here you see, Supply'd the Epithalamie."[723]

[723] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. ii. p. 159.

Shakespeare alludes to this custom in "1 Henry VI." (iii. 2), where Joan of Arc, thrusting out a burning torch on the top of the tower at Rouen, exclaims:

"Behold, this is the happy wedding torch, That joineth Rouen unto her countrymen."

In "The Tempest," too (iv. 1), Iris says:

"no bed-right shall be paid Till Hymen's torch be lighted."

According to a Roman marriage custom, the bride, on her entry into her husband's house, was prohibited from treading over his threshold, and lest she should even so much as touch it, she was always lifted over it.

Shakespeare seems inadvertently to have overlooked this usage in "Coriola.n.u.s" (iv. 5), where he represents Aufidius as saying:

"I lov'd the maid I married; never man Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here, Thou n.o.ble thing! more dances my rapt heart, Than when I first my wedded mistress saw Bestride my threshold."

Lucan in his "Pharsalia" (lib. ii. 1. 359), says:

"Translata vetuit contingere limina planta."

Once more, Sunday appears to have been a popular day for marriages; the brides of the Elizabethan dramas being usually represented as married on Sundays. In the "Taming of the Shrew" (ii. 1), Petruchio, after telling his future father-in-law "that upon Sunday is the wedding-day," and laughing at Katharina's petulant exclamation, "I'll see thee hanged on Sunday first," says:

"Father, and wife, and gentlemen, adieu; I will to Venice; Sunday comes apace:- We will have rings, and things, and fine array; And, kiss me, Kate, we will be married o' Sunday."

Thus Mr. Jeaffreson, speaking of this custom in his "Brides and Bridals," rightly remarks: "A fas.h.i.+onable wedding, celebrated on the Lord's Day in London, or any part of England, would nowadays be denounced by religious people of all Christian parties. But in our feudal times, and long after the Reformation, Sunday was of all days of the week the favorite one for marriages. Long after the theatres had been closed on Sundays, the day of rest was the chief day for weddings with Londoners of every social cla.s.s."

Love-charms have from the earliest times been much in request among the credulous, anxious to gain an insight into their matrimonial prospects.[724] In the "Merchant of Venice" (v. 1), we have an allusion to the practice of kneeling and praying at wayside crosses for a happy marriage, in the pa.s.sage where Stephano tells how his mistress

"doth stray about By holy crosses, where she kneels and prays For happy wedlock hours."

[724] See "Merry Wives of Windsor," iv. 2.

The use of love-potions by a despairing lover, to secure the affections of another, was a superst.i.tious practice much resorted to in olden times.[725] This mode of enchantment, too, was formerly often employed in our own country, and Gay, in his "Shepherd's Week," relates how Hobnelia was guilty of this questionable practice:

"As I was wont, I trudged, last market-day, To town with new-laid eggs, preserved in hay.

I made my market long before 'twas night; My purse grew heavy, and my basket light.

Straight to the 'pothecary's shop I went, And in love-powder all my money spent.

Behap what will, next Sunday after prayers, When to the ale-house Lubberkin repairs, These golden flies into his mug I'll throw, And soon the swain with fervent love shall glow."

[725] See Potter's "Antiquities of Greece;" Brand's "Pop.

Antiq.," vol. iii. p. 306.

In the "Character of a Quack Astrologer," 1673, quoted by Brand, we are told how "he trappans a young heiress to run away with a footman, by persuading a young girl 'tis her destiny; and sells the old and ugly philtres and love-powder to procure them sweethearts." Shakespeare has represented Oth.e.l.lo as accused of winning Desdemona "by conjuration and mighty magic." Thus Brabantio (i. 2) says:

"thou hast practised on her with foul charms; Abus'd her delicate youth with drugs, or minerals, That weaken motion."

And in the following scene he further repeats the same charge against Oth.e.l.lo:

"She is abus'd, stol'n from me, and corrupted By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks; For nature so preposterously to err, Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense, Sans witchcraft could not."

Oth.e.l.lo, however, in proving that he had won Desdemona only by honorable means, addressing the Duke, replies:

"by your gracious patience, I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms, What conjuration, and what mighty magic,- For such proceeding I am charg'd withal,- I won his daughter."

It may have escaped the poet's notice that, by the Venetian law, the giving love-potions was held highly criminal, as appears in the code "Della Promission del Malefico," cap. xvii., "Del Maleficii et Herbarie."

A further allusion to this practice occurs in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (ii. 1). where Puck and Oberon amuse themselves at t.i.tania's expense.[726]

[726] See page 227.

An expression common in Shakespeare's day for any one born out of wedlock is mentioned by the b.a.s.t.a.r.d in "King John" (i. 1):

"In at the window, or else o'er the hatch."

The old saying also that "Hanging and wiving go by destiny" is quoted by Nerissa in the "Merchant of Venice" (ii. 9). In "Much Ado About Nothing"

(ii. 1), Don Pedro makes use of an old popular phrase in asking Claudio: "When mean you to go to church?" referring to his marriage.