CHAPTER III

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.”

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.