Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/377

 355 MARRIAGE 1^EDDIM(G«=DA¥ LORE Coii(i,iueii from />ai,re in./. Pari i The Evolution and History of Wedding Music— The Wearing of ** Favours Masque ■Wedding-Day Jn England the prejudice against a Friday marriage may be traced to Good Friday, so that the sixth day of the week is always regarded as a sorrowful or unfortunate day, and certainly not a time when a maiden wishes, above all other times, for joy and gladness. " The bride hath paced into the hall, Red as a rose is she ; Nodding their heads before her goes The merry minstrelsy." So wrote Coleridge in " The Rime ol the Ancient Mariner," referring to the pretty old custom of greeting the happy couple with bridal music. With the changing years, times and customs necessarily change also, and, though the cessation of what used to be popularly termed " rough music " at weddings is certainly not to be regretted, it seems a pity that the other class of melody should have passed into oblivion. Any student of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, or other Elizabethan dramatists knows how highly wedding music was regarded in the days of " Merrie England." A wedding dinner would have been considered incom- plete without music. Wedding Music of Yore The musicians usually accompanied the bride to church, and also escorted the pair on their return home. Drums, cymbals, and trumpets were the instruments usually used in the processional music ; but all kinds, such as " harpcs, lutes, kyttes, bassoons, and drooms," commingled at the wedding feast. This medley of instruments was sometimes used in the church itself, but afterwards was forbidden by Bishop Coverdale, who de- nounced it as " unreasonable and irreverent," declaring that it hindered the service and distracted the mind from the worship of God. Undoubtedly this very often was the case ; the musicians were mere amateurs, the result was a record of discords rather than sweet harmony. The house music, however, continued long, and remained customary down to the times of Charles 11. and William 111. Not only did the drummers make merry on the actual wedding-day and during the evening, but they aroused the poor bride early on the following morning, and caused annoyance and discomfort to the surrounding .neighbourhood. Gay, in his " Trivia," deplores this noisy compliment. " Here rows of drummers stand in martial file. And with their vellum thunder shake the pile. To greet the new-made bride. Are sounds like these The proper prelude to a state of peace ? " Naturally the quality, as well as the quautity, of music depended upon the financial position of the bride's family, so that in quite simple village weddings often the village fiddler, or in Scotland or Ireland the piper or harpist, supplied it entirely, and the weddmg guests danced to his merry music. The Masque of Old Sometimes the wedding-day festivities would terminate with a supper, followed by a " masque." On a memorable occasion in 1562, the masquers depicted friars and nuns, in derision of the recently suppressed reli- gious orders. The ceremony, however, more often concluded with a pretty Morris dance, or with a dance of the bridesmaids, still adorned with their fluttering ribands and flowers. Practically all that is left of " bridal music " now is the " wedding march," to the strains of which the bridal pair pass down the church aisle. The ringing of the wedding peals is a Very old usage. So much so, that the fifth bell at the church of Kendal, in Westmorland, bears the following inscription in reference to the custom : " In wedlock bands. All ye who join with hands, Your hearts unite ; So shall our tuneful tongues combine To laud the nuptial rite." Another custom which has been greatly modified is that of wearing bride-knots, or " favours," as they are popularly called. Among the old northern nations the knot was the symbol of love and faith, and was emblematic of an indissoluble tie. When these northern invaders swept down on our coasts they brought with them their customs, so that among the northern English and the Scotch a knotted riband became a favourite present between lovers indicative of their plighted troth. This has always been, erroneously, called a " true-love " knot, from its supposed com- bination of words " true and love " ; but the real derivation of the word is traced from the Danish verb " trulofa." to plight troth, or faith. And from these " knots " came the bride favours, which ultimately became so popular that they were worn by every guest, friend, and acquaintance, as well as by all the bridal attendants. Ribands were worn in the hair by the girls, and on the breast and hat by the men. Not only were they white, as now they are, but of every shade and colour. A fashionable wedding, therefore, presented a scene ex- tremely j'icturesque. To be continued.