Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 70

"Mark our contract."

The ceremony is left incomplete, for the princely father discovers himself with:

"Mark your divorce, young sir."

It appears, therefore, that espousals before witnesses were considered as const.i.tuting a valid marriage, if followed up within a limited time by the marriage of the Church. However much the Reformed Church might have endeavored to abrogate this practice, it was unquestionably the ancient habit of the people.[710] It was derived from the Roman law, and still prevails in the Lutheran Church.

[710] Knight's "Stratford Shakespeare," p. 73.

Besides exchanging kisses,[711] accompanied with vows of everlasting affection, and whispering lovers' rea.s.surances of fidelity, it was customary to interchange rings. In Shakespeare's plays, however, espousals are made with and without the use of the ring. Thus, in the case of Ferdinand and Miranda, we read of their joining hands only ("Tempest," iii. 1):

"_Ferdinand._ Ay, with a heart as willing As bondage e'er of freedom; here's my hand.

_Miranda._ An mine, with my heart in't; and now farewell, Till half an hour hence."

[711] Cf. "King John" (ii. 2):

"_King Philip._ Young princes, close your hands.

_Austria._ And your lips too; for, I am well a.s.sured, That I did so, when I was first a.s.sured."

In the pa.s.sage already quoted from "Twelfth Night" (v. 1) there seems to have been a mutual interchange of rings.

Some, indeed, considered that a betrothal was not complete unless each spouse gave the other a circlet. Lady Anne, in "Richard III." (i. 2), is made to share in this misconception:

"_Gloster._ Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

_Anne._ To take, is not to give.

_Gloster._ Look, how my ring encompa.s.seth thy finger, Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart: Wear both of them, for both of them are thine."

In "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (ii. 2) we read:

"_Julia._ Keep this remembrance for thy Julia's sake (_giving a ring_).

_Proteus._ Why, then, we'll make exchange: here, take you this.

_Julia._ And seal the bargain with a holy kiss."

A joint, or gimmal, ring was anciently a common token among lovers, an allusion to which is made by Emilia, in "Oth.e.l.lo" (iv. 3): "I would not do such a thing for a joint-ring." Their nature will be best understood by a pa.s.sage in Dryden's "Don Sebastian" (1690, act v.):

"A curious artist wrought them, With joints so close, as not to be perceiv'd; Yet are they both each other's counterpart, ... and in the midst, A heart, divided in two halves, was plac'd."

They were generally made of two or three hoops, so chased and engraved that, when fastened together by a single rivet, the whole three formed one design, the usual device being a hand. When an engagement was contracted, the ring was taken apart, each spouse taking a division, and the third one being presented to the princ.i.p.al witness of the contract.[712] Hence such a ring was known as a "Sponsalium Annulis," to which Herrick thus refers:

"Thou sent'st me a true-love knot, but I Returned a ring of jimmals, to imply Thy love hath one knot, mine a triple tye."

[712] See Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 363; "Archaeologia,"

vol. xiv. p. 7; Jones's "Finger Ring Lore," 1877, pp. 313-318.

The term is used by the Duke of Anjou, in "1 Henry VI." (i. 2):

"I think, by some odd gimmors or device, Their arms are set like clocks, still to strike on; Else ne'er could they hold out so as they do."

Again, in "Henry V." (iv. 2), Grandpre tells how,

"in their pale dull mouths the gimmal bit Lies foul with chew'd gra.s.s, still and motionless."

Most readers of the "Merchant of Venice" remember the mirthful use which Shakespeare makes of lovers' rings. Portia says (iii. 2), when giving her wealth and self to Ba.s.sanio:

"I give them with this ring; Which when you part from, lose, or give away, Let it presage the ruin of your love."

The last act, too, gives several particulars about lovers' rings, which, in Elizabethan England,[713] often had posies engraved on them, and were worn by men on the left hand. Gratiano, for example, says:

"About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring That she did give me; whose posy was For all the world like cutlers' poetry Upon a knife, 'Love me and leave me not.'"

[713] See Jeaffreson's "Brides and Bridals," 1873, vol. i. pp.

77, 78.

Again Ba.s.sanio exclaims:

"Why, I were best to cut my left hand off, And swear I lost the ring defending it."

In "Taming of the Shrew" Shakespeare gives numerous allusions to the customs of his day connected with courtship and marriage. Indeed, in the second act (sc. 2) we have a perfect betrothal scene:

"_Petruchio._ Give me thy hand, Kate: I will unto Venice, To buy apparel 'gainst the wedding-day.- Provide the feast, father, and bid the guests; I will be sure my Katharine shall be fine.

_Baptista._ I know not what to say: but give me your hands; G.o.d send you joy, Petruchio! 'tis a match.

_Gremio. Tranio._ Amen, say we; we will be witnesses.

_Petruchio._ 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."

Although Katharina is only his spouse, and Baptista not yet his father-in-law, Petruchio, in accordance with fashion, calls her "wife"

and him "father." The spouses of old times used to term one another "husband" and "wife," for, as they argued, they were as good as husband and wife.

Formerly there was a kind of betrothal or marriage contract prevalent among the low orders called "hand-fasting," or "hand-festing," said to have been much in use among the Danes, and which is mentioned by Ray in his "Glossary of Northumbrian Words." It simply means hand-fastening or binding. In "Cymbeline" (i. 5) the phrase is used in its secondary sense by the Queen, who, speaking of Pisanio, declares that he is

"A sly and constant knave, Not to be shak'd; the agent for his master, And the remembrancer of her, to hold The hand-fast to her lord."

In the "Christian State of Matrimony," 1543, we find the following ill.u.s.tration of this custom: "Yet in this thing almost must I warn every reasonable and honest person to beware that in the contracting of marriage they dissemble not, nor set forth any lie. Every man, likewise, must esteem the person to whom he is 'handfasted' none otherwise than for his own spouse; though as yet it be not done in the church, nor in the street. After the handfasting and making of the contract, the church-going and wedding should not be deferred too long." The author then goes on to rebuke a custom "that at the handfasting there is made a great feast and superfluous banquet." Sir John Sinclair, in the "Statistical account of Scotland" (1794, vol. xii. p. 615), tells us that at a fair annually held at Eskdalemuir, Dumfriesshire, "it was the custom for the unmarried persons of both s.e.xes to choose a companion according to their liking, with whom they were to live till that time next year. This was called 'handfasting,' or hand-in-fist. If they were pleased with each other at that time then they continued together for life; if not, they separated, and were free to make another choice as at the first."

Shakespeare has given us numerous ill.u.s.trations of the marriage customs of our forefathers, many of which are interesting as relics of the past, owing to their having long ago fallen into disuse. The fashion of introducing a bowl of wine into the church at a wedding, which is alluded to in the "Taming of the Shrew" (iii. 2), to be drunk by the bride and bridegroom and persons present, immediately after the marriage ceremony, is very ancient. Gremio relates how Petruchio

"stamp'd and swore, As if the vicar meant to cozen him.

But after many ceremonies done, 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[714] all in the s.e.xton's face; Having no other reason But that his beard grew thin and hungerly, And seem'd to ask him sops as he was drinking."