Scene I.)

White’s “Law in Shakespeare,” Sec. 66, pp. 95, 97.

[72] Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. I., p. 25.

[73] Genesis, XXIV., 22, 53.

[74] Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. II., p. 131.

[75] _Ante idem._ 130.

[76] _Ante idem._ 133.

[77] During the reign of George I. and George II., the wedding ring was placed on the usual finger at marriage and then transferred to the thumb. Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. II., p. 134.

[78] _Ante idem._ p. 135.

[79] Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. I., p. 94.

The Quakers and Mormons reject the wedding ring, because of its heathenish origin. Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. II., p. 135.

The wedding rings of St. Louis, of France; of Margaret, daughter of the Earl of Warwick; of the wife of Duke John, of Sweden; of Martin Luther and Catherine Von Bora, his wife; the ring given by Henry VIII. to Anne of Cleves; that given by Phillip, to Queen Mary, and by Lord Darnley, to Mary, Queen of Scots, are described in Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. II., pp. 145, 149.

Chaucer’s reference to the wedding ring, in his “Troilus and Cressida”; Shakespeare’s mention of the gemmal ring, in “Midsummer’s Night’s Dream”; and his use of the ring in “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” “Twelfth Night” and “Merchant of Venice,” with many traditions of the wedding ring, will be found interestingly presented in Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. II., pp. 129, 149.

The custom of placing the ring upon the fourth finger of the left hand, according to the opinion of a writer in the British Apollo, in 1708, dates from the discovery of the convenience of the left hand for such ornament because less employed than the right and the fourth finger, less than others, was needed in ordinary use. See Knowlton’s “Origin of Wedding Superstitions;” Finck’s “Primitive Love and Love Stories.”

[80] Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. I., pp. 94, 95.

[81] _Ante idem._, vol. I., pp. 128, 133, 156; vol. II., pp. 44, 224.

[82] Deuteronomy, XXV., 5, 10.

[83] Ruth, IV., 7, 8.

[84] Boston Trans. Aug. 13, 1910; Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. I., p. 16; Hutchinson’s “Marriage Customs in Many Lands.”

[85] _Ante idem._

Wood quotes Michelet, in his “Life of Luther,” to show that the great Reformer used the shoe at a marriage ceremony. Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. I., p. 16.

[86] Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. II., p. 218.

[87] _Ante idem._, p. 216.

[88] _Ante. idem._, pp. 215, 221.

Referring to the custom of stocking-throwing, Rowe, in his “Happy Village,” in 1796 says:

“The wedding-cake now through the ring was led, The stocking thrown across the nuptial bed.”

And in the “Collier’s Wedding,” we read:

“The stocking’s thrown, the company gone, And Tom and Jenny both alone.”

[89] See Article on “Ancient Marriage Customs,” in Uncle Remus’ Home Magazine, June, 1912.

[90] “Matrimonial Curiosities,” Chambers Journal, vol. 48, pt. 2, p. 813.

[91] _Ante idem._

[92] _Ante idem._

[93] “Courtship and Marriage Customs,” p. 79.

[94] Earle’s “Customs in Old New England,” p. 79.

[95] History, Wells and Kennebunkport.

[96] “Along New England Roads,” p. 25.

[97] “Customs in Old New England,” p. 78.

[98] Earle’s “Customs in Old New England,” p. 79.

[99] Chambers Journal, vol. 48, pt. 2, July-Dec., 1871, p. 812.

Discussing the subject of “gallows-matches,” Wood, in his “Wedding Day in All Ages,” says: “Formerly was current a vulgar notion that if a woman married a condemned man under the gallows, she would thereby save him from execution. Certainly this exemption had a quasi-legal existence in France in the fifteenth century, as there are instances of it in the annals of that country.” (Vol. 2, p. 25.)

[100] Chambers Journal, vol. 48, pt. 2, 812.

[101] _Ante idem._

[102] _Ante idem._

[103] _Ante idem._

[104] Roxburghe Ballads.