"as yellow as gold, hanging down behind her, curiously "combed and plaited; was led to church between two sweet 66 66 'boys with bride-laces and rosemary tied about their "silken sleeves. There was a fair bride-cup of silver gilt "carried before her, wherein was a goodly branch of rosemary gilded very fair, and hung about with silken ribands "of all colours. Musicians came next; then a group of “maidens, some bearing great bride-cakes, others garlands "of wheat finely gilded, and thus they passed into the church." (Vide History of Jack of Newbury, by T. Deloné, 1596.) Out of the bride-cup it was customary for all the persons present, together with the new-married couple, to drink in the church. This custom is referred to in "The Taming "of the Shrew," when Petruchio ... quaff'd off the Muscadell, "And threw the sops all in the sexton's face." From some fancied similarity, probably of colour, to the sops steeped in wine, the name sop-in-wine is given to a species of flower somewhat resembling a pink, "Bring coronations, and sops-in-wine The following ludicrous account of a Solemn Bridale, which was acted as a show before Queen Elizabeth, is extracted from Laneham's letter to his good friend Master Humfrey Martin, Mercer in London, touching the Festivities at Kenilworth, 1575. "Thus were they marshalled: first, all the lusty lads and "bold Bachelors of the parish, sutablie every wight with "his blue buckram bride-lace upon a branch of green "broom (because Rosemary is scant there) tied on his left arm, (for on that side lies the heart,) in martial order ranged on before, two and two in a rank; some with a 66 "hat, some in a cap; some a coat, some a jerkin; some "for lightness in his doublet and hose; some boots and 66 no spurs, some spurs and no boots, and some neither "nother. Then the Bridegroom foremost, in his tawney "worsted jacket (for his friends were fain that he should "be a Bridegroom before the Queen,) and a fair strawn "hat with a capital crown, steeplewise on his head. “Well, sir, after these, a lively Morris dance accord"ing to the ancient manner; six dancers, Maid Marian, "and the Fool. Then three pretty puzels* as bright as a "breast of bacon, of thirty year old apiece, that carried "three special spice-cakes of a bushel of wheat, (they had "it by measure out of my Lord's bakehouse,) before the "bride, with set countenance, and lips so demurely sim"pering, as it had been a mare cropping a thistle. After "these comes a freckle-faced redheaded lubber, whose "office was to bear the bride-cup all seemly besilvered and "parcel (partly) gilt, adorned with a beautiful bunch of "broom gaily begilded for memory. This gentle cup"bearer yet had his freckled phizonemy somewhat unhap'pily infested as he went, by the busy flies that flocked "about the bride cup for the sweetness of the sucket that "it savoured of; but he like a tall fellow, withstood them "stoutly, beat them away, killed them by scores, stood to “his charge, and marched on in good order. Then fol"lowed the worshipful bride, led (after the country manner) between two ancient parishioners, honest townsmen; a thirty-year-old, of colour brown bay, not very beautiful "indeed, but ugly, foul, and ill favoured; yet marvellous "fain of the office, because she heard say she should dance "before the Queen, in which feat she thought she would "foot it as finely as the best." 66 66 * Maids-from the French pucelle. LXIV.* This love is but a wanton fit, If thou hast nothing to do, says Horace, “Invidiâ vel amore miser torquebere." "Thou shalt be tormented with envy or love." And in like manner Aristotle, "Ut Naphthe ad ignem, sic Amor ad illos qui torpescunt otio." "As a match to the fire, so is love to those who are idle." The Poets therefore (as the author of the Anatomy of Melancholy observes,) do well to feign all shepherds lovers, because they live such idle lives. Next in order of date is his Book of "Madrigals to four voices" published 1594, by Thomas Est, in Aldersgate Street, at the sign of the Black Horse. No dedication. It contains twenty Madrigals. A later edition printed in 1600 has two in addition. LXV. April is in my mistress' face, * From a later edition, A.D. 1606. E The counterpart to this is to be found in one of Greene's Poems called Perimedes the Blacksmith, A.D. 1588. Unless, therefore, we suppose one to be a plagiarism, the probability is that they are translations from the same foreign original. Greene's stanza runs thus: "Fair is my love, for April's in her face, The only fault of this Madrigal as regards public performance, is its extreme brevity; to remedy which in some measure I have in the printed score ventured to add the following stanza: Oh! were it July all the year, Then April show'rs I would not fear; LXVI. In dew of roses steeping Her lovely cheeks, Lycoris sat a weeping. Ah Dorus false! thou hast my heart bereft me, Hear me, alas! cannot my beauty move thee? pray thee; Ah me! thou scorn'st, the more I In England's Helicon, A.D. 1600, this is called "Ly "coris the Nymph her sad song:" the author's name is not given. The fifth and sixth lines bring to mind a similar appeal in Burns's beautiful Ballad of Lord Gregory : "An exile from her father's ha' "And all for love of thee: "At least some pity on me shaw, The forsaken Lycoris is however determined not to be separated from her faithless swain, but after death still purposes to continue his ghostly comforter. LXVII. Clorinda false, adieu! thy love torments me: Let Thirsis have thy heart, since he contents thee. I fain, alas! would hide it; But oh who can abide it? Adieu! cease now my death desiring: Lo! thou hast thy requiring. Thus spake Philistus on his crook relying*, And sweetly sweetly fell a dying. This tale is the converse of the preceding, with this difference only, that the faithful shepherd does not, like Lycoris, resolve to continue his attentions from the land of spirits. It is likewise in England's Helicon, without the author's name, and is entitled "Philistus' Farewell to false "Clorinda." * Leaning. |