2B4 
M A R 11 1 A G E CEREMONIES. 
‘ The Entertainment, or Porch Verse, at the Marriage of Mr. 
Henry Northy and the most witty Mrs. Lettice Yard. 
‘‘ Welcome ! but yet no entrance till we blesse 
First you, then you, and both for white successe : 
Profane no porch, young man and maid, for fear 
Ye wrong the threshold god that keeps peace here ; 
Please him, and then all good luck will betide 
You the brisk bridegroom, you the dainty bride.” 
Drinking Wineinthe Church at Marriages — This custom is enjoined 
in the Hereford Missal. By the Sarum Missal it is directed that the 
sops immersed in this wine, as well as the liquor itself and the cup that 
contained it, should be blessed by the p^riest. The beverage used on 
this occasion was to be drunk by the bride and bridegroom, and the rest 
of the company. — In Mr, Lyson’s Environs of London, in his account of 
Wilsdon parish, in Middlesex, he tells us of an “Inventory of the 
gtiods and ornaments belonging to Wilsdon Church about A. D. 1547,” 
in which occur “ two Massers that were appointed to remayne in the 
church for to drynk yn at Bridcales.^’ The pieces of cake, or wafers, 
that appear to have been immersed in the wine on this occasion, were 
properly called sops, and doubtless gave name to the flower termed 
“ Sops in w ine.” 
The allusions to this custom in our old plays are very numerous. 
In Ben Jonson’s Magnetic Lady, the wine drank on this occasion is 
called “ a Knitting Cup.” The Jews have a custom at this day, when 
a couple are married, to break the glass in which the bride and 
bridegroom have drunk, to admonish them of mortality. This custom 
of nuptial drinking appears to have prevailed in the Greek Church. 
The Nuptial Kiss in the Church. — The Nuptial Kiss in the church 
is enjoined both by the York Missal,"^ and the Sarum Manual ; f it is 
expressly mentioned in the following line from the old play of the 
Insatiate Countess, bv Marston : 
“ The Kisse thou gav’st me in the church here take.”]; 
Care Cloth. — Among the Anglo-Saxons, the nuptial benediction 
was performed under a veil, or square piece of cloth, held at each 
corner by a tall man, over the bridegroom and bride, to conceal her 
virgin blushes ; but if the bride was a widow, the veil was esteemed 
useless. According to the use of the church of Sarum, when there 
was a marriage before mass, the parties kneeled together, and had a 
* Thus the York Missal, “ Accipiat Sponsus pacem,” (the Pax) 
“ a Sacerdote, et ferat Sponsae, osculans earn, et neminem alium, nec 
ipse, nec ipsa.” 
t 4to. Par., 1553, Kubrick, fol. 69, “Surgant ambo, Sponsus, et 
Sponsa, et accipiat Sponsus pacera a Sacerdote, et ferat Sponsae, 
osculans earn, et neminem alium, nec ipse, nec ipsa.” 
I Vaughan, in his Golden Grove, says, “ Among the Romans,^ the 
future couple sent certain pledges one to another, which most com- 
monly they themselves, afterwards bdng present, would confirm with 
a religious kiss.” . . 
