"Perhaps the French phrase, Adieu panniers, vendanges son faites, may allude to a similar custom." It has been related that on the day previous to the marriage of the Duke of York (by proxy) to the Princess of Prussia, a whole heap of potsherds was formed at her Royal Highness's door, by persons coming and throwing them against it with considerable violence (a custom which obtains in Prussia, with all ranks, on the day before a virgin is married), and that during this singular species of battery the Princess, every now and then, came and peeped out at the door. RING AND BRIDE-CAKE. Among the customs observed at marriages, those of the RING and BRIDE-CAKE seem of the most remote antiquity. Confarreation and the ring were used by the heathens as binding ceremonies in making agreements and grants; and thence doubtless they have been derived to the most solemn of our engagements. The ceremony at the solemnisation of a marriage was called confarreation, in token of a most firm conjunction between the man and the wife, with a cake of wheat or barley. Blount holds that we partly retain this in what is called the bride-cake used at weddings. Moffet, in his Health's Improvement, informs us that "the English, when the Bride comes from Church, are wont to cast Wheat upon her Head; and when the Bride and Bridegroom return home, one presents them with a Pot of Butter, as presaging plenty, and abundance of all good things." Moresinus has a reference to the ceremony of confarreation; and it has not been overlooked by Herrick, who, addressing the wife, says— "While some repeat Your praise, and bless you, sprinkling you with Wheat.” It was also a Hebrew custom. (See Selden's Uxor Hebraica, lib. ii. cap. xv.) The connection between the bride-cake and wedding is strongly marked in the custom still retained in Yorkshire, where the former is cut into little square pieces, thrown over the bridegroom's and bride's head, and then put through the ring. Sometimes it is broken over the bride's head, and then thrown among the crowd to be scrambled for. In the North, slices of the bride-cake are put through the wedding ring; and they are afterwards laid under pillows, at night, to cause young persons to dream of their lovers. According to Douce's MS. Notes, this custom is not peculiar to the North of England; it seems to prevail generally. The pieces of the cake were required to be drawn nine times through the wedding ring. Aubrey, in the Remains of Gentilisme and Judaisme (MS. Lansd. Brit. Mus. 8vo. Cat. No. 226, fol. 109 b.), says: "When I was a little Boy (before the Civil Wars) I have seen, according to the Custome then, the Bride and Bridegroome kisse over the Bride-Cakes at the Table. It was about the latter end of Dinner; and the Cakes were layd one upon another, like the picture of the Shew-Bread in the old Bibles. The Bridegroom waited at Dinner." The supposed heathen origin of our marriage ring * had wellnigh caused the abolition of it, during the time of the Commonwealth. Butler gives us the following chief reasons why the Puritans wished it to be set aside "Others were for abolishing That Tool of Matrimony, a Ring, With which th' unsanctified Bridegroom (As wise as ringing of a Pig That used to break up Ground, and dig) That nulls the After-Marriage still." Vallancey says that “there is a passage in Ruth, chap iv. 7, which gives room to think the Ring was used by the Jews as a Covenant." He adds that the Vulgate has translated Narthick (which ought to be a ring) a shoe. "In Irish Nuirt is an Amulet worn on the Finger, or Arm, a Ring." Sphæra Solis est Narthick, says Buxtorf in his Chaldee Lexicon. In Chilmead's translation of Modena's History of the Rites, Customes, and Manner of Life of the present Jews throughout the World (1650), we read that before the writing of the bride's dowry is produced and read, "the Bridegroom putteth a Ring upon her Finger, in the presence of two Witnesses, which commonly use to be the Rabbines, saying withal unto her: 'Behold, thou art my espoused Wife, according to the Custome of Moses and of Israel.'" The first inventor of the ring, says Swinburne, was 66 one Prometheus. The workman which made it was Tubal-Cain: and TubalCain, by the counsel of our first parent Adam (as Alberic de Rosa telleth me), gave it unto his Son to this end, that therewith he should espouse a Wife, like as Abraham delivered unto his Servant Bracelets and Ear-rings of Gold. The form of the Ring being circular, that is round and without end, importeth thus much, that their mutual love and hearty affection should roundly flow from the one to the other as in a Circle, and that continually and for ever." The wedding ring is worn on the fourth finger of the left hand because it was anciently believed, though the opinion has been justly exploded by the anatomists of modern times, that a small artery ran from this finger to the heart. Wheatley, on the authority of the * The following thought on the marriage ring, from Herrick's Hesperides, is well expressed "And as this round Is no where found To flaw, or else to sever: So let our love As endlesse prove; And pure as Gold for ever." The allusion both to the form and metal of which it is composed is elegant. Were it not too long, it would be the best posie for a wedding ring that ever was devised. Missals, calls it a vein. "It is," says he, " because from thence there proceeds a particular Vein to the Heart. This, indeed," he adds, "is now contradicted by experience: but several eminent authors, both Gentile and Christian, as well Physicians as Divines, were formerly of this opinion, and therefore they thought this Finger the properest to bear this pledge of love, that from thence it might be conveyed, as it were, to the Heart." In the Hereford, York, and Salisbury Missals, the ring is directed to be put first upon the thumb, afterwards upon the second, then on the third, and lastly on the fourth finger, where it is to remain. As Selden has noticed, it is very observable that none of these Missals mentions the hand, whether right or left, upon which the ring is to be put. From Aulus Gellius it would seem that the ancient Greeks and most of the Romans wore the ring in eo digito qui est in manu sinistra minimo proximus. He adds, on the authority of Appian, that a small nerve runs from this finger to the heart; and that it was honoured with the office of bearing the ring, on account of its connection with that master mover of the vital functions. Macrobius assigns the same reason, quoting also the opinion of Ateius Capito, that the right hand was exempt from this office, because it was much more used than the left hand, and therefore the precious stones of the rings were liable to be broken. Speaking of the ring-finger, Lemnius (1658) writes that "a small branch of the Arterie, and not of the Nerves, as Gellius thought, is stretched forth from the Heart unto this finger, the motion whereof you shall perceive evidently in Women with Child and wearied in Travel, and all Affects of the Heart, by the touch of your fore finger. I use to raise such as are fallen in a Swoond by pinching this Joynt, and by rubbing the Ring of Gold with a little Saffron, for by this a restoring force that is in it, passeth to the Heart, and refresheth the Fountain of Life, unto which this Finger is joyn'd: wherefore it deserved that honour above the rest, and Antiquity thought fit to compasse it about with Gold. Also the worth of this Finger that it receives from the Heart, procured thus much, that the old Physitians, from whence also it hath the name of Medicus, would mingle their Medicaments and Potions with this Finger, for no Venom can stick upon the very outmost part of it, but it will offend a Man, and communicate itself to his Heart." In the British Apollo (1708) to the inquiry "Why is it that the Person to be married is enjoyned to put a Ring upon the fourth Finger of his Spouse's left Hand?" it is answered: "There is nothing more in this, than that the Custom was handed down to the present age from the practice of our Ancestors, who found the left Hand more convenient for such Ornaments than the right, in that it's ever less employed, for the same reason they chose the fourth Finger, which is not only less used than either of the rest, but is more capable of preserving a Ring from bruises, having this one quality peculiar to itself, that it cannot be extended but in company with some other Finger, whereas the rest may be singly stretched to their full length and streightness. "Some are of the Ancients' opinion in this matter, viz. that the Ring was so worn, because to that Finger, and to that only, comes an Artery from the Heart. But the politer knowledge of our modern Anatomists having clearly demonstrated the absurdity of that notion, we are rather inclined to believe the continuance of the Custom owing to the reason above-mentioned." Many married women are so rigid, not to say superstitious, in their notions concerning their wedding rings, that neither when they wash their hands, nor at any other time, will they take it off from their finger; extending, it should seem, the expression of "till Death us do part even to this golden circlet, the token and pledge of matrimony. " This, however, may have originated in the Popish HALLOWING of this ring; of which the following form occurs in The Doctrine of the Masse Booke, from Wyttonberge, by Nicholas Dorcastor (1554): "The Halowing of the Woman's Ring at Wedding. Thou Maker and Conserver of Mankinde, Gever of Spiritual Grace and Graunter of eternal Salvation, Lord, send thy blessing upon this Ring," (here the Protestant translator observes in the margin, "Is not here wise geare?") "that she which shall weare it, maye be armed wyth the vertue of heavenly defence, and that it maye profit her to eternall Salvation, thorowe Christ, &c. 'A Prayer. 'Halow thou Lord this Ring which we blesse in thy holye Name: that what Woman soever shall weare it, may stand fast in thy peace, and continue in thy wyl, and live and grow and waxe old in thy love, and be multiplied into that length of daies, thorow our Lord, &c.' "Then let holy Water be sprinkled upon the Ryng." There is an old proverb on the subject of wedding rings, which has no doubt been many a time quoted for the purpose of encouraging and hastening the consent of a diffident or timorous mistress "As your Wedding-Ring wears, Columbiere writes: "The Hieroglyphic of the Ring is very various. Some of the Antients made it to denote Servitude, alledging that the Bridegroom was to give it to his Bride, to denote to her that she is to be subject to him, which Pythagoras seemed to confirm, when he prohibited wearing a streight Ring, that is, not to submit to over-rigid servitude." Rings appear to have been given away formerly at weddings. In Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, we read in the Account of the famous Philosopher of Queen Elizabeth's days, Edward Kelly, that he "who was openly profuse beyond the modest limits of a sober Philosopher, did give away in Gold-wire-Rings (or Rings twisted with three goldwires) at the marriage of one of his Maid-Servants, to the value of £4000." This was in 1589, at Trebona In Davison's Poetical Rhapsody (1611) occurs the following beautiful sonnet "Upon sending his Mistresse a Gold Ring, with this Poesie, PURE and ENDLESSE. "If you would know the love which I you beare, My Love, which ne're disloyall thought did staine. Unlesse you it destroy with your disdaine. By waxing lesse, doth shew some part is spent. A remarkable superstition still prevails among the lowest of our vulgar, that a man may lawfully sell his wife to another, provided he deliver her over with a halter about her neck. It is painful to observe that examples of this even now occur in our newspapers. Every one knows that in England, during the time of the Commonwealth, justices of peace were empowered to marry people. A jeu d'esprit on this subject may be found in Flecknoe's Diarium (1656), "On the Justice of Peace's Making Marriages, and the crying them in the Market." RUSH RINGS. A custom extremely hurtful to the interests of morality appears anciently to have prevailed both in England and other countries, of marrying with a RUSH RING. It was chiefly practised, however, by designing men, for the purpose of debauching their mistresses, who sometimes were so infatuated as to believe that this mock ceremony was a real marriage.* BRIDE FAVOURS. With the ancient Northern nations, a knot seems to have been the symbol of love, faith, and friendship, pointing out the indissoluble tie of affection and duty. Thus the ancient Runic inscriptions, as we gather from Hickes's Thesaurus, are in the form of a knot; and hence originated among the Northern English and Scots, who still largely retain the language and manners of the ancient Danes, that curious kind of knot, a mutual present between the lover and his mistress, which, being considered as the emblem of plighted fidelity, is therefore called a true-love knot; a name which is not derived, as one would naturally suppose it to be, from the words "true" and "love," * See Reed's (1803) Shakesp. vol. viii. p. 272. Douce refers Shakespeare's expression, "Tib's Rush for Tom's forefinger," which has so long puzzled the commentators, to this custom. |