is as complete a catalogue of wedding strewments to be found elsewhere in verse, but Tusser's[1] list of "Strowing herbes of all sorts" answers to the same end in prose.
"The healthful balm and mint from their full laps do fly,
The scentful camomile, the verd'rous costmary;[2]
They hot muscado[3] oft with milder maudlin[4] cast;
Strong tansy, fennel cool, they prodigally waste:
Clear hysop, and therewith the comfortable thyme.
Germander[5] with the rest, each thing then in her prime;
As well of wholesome herbs as every pleasant flower,
Which nature here produc'd to fit this happy hour.
Amongst these strewing kinds some other wild that grow
As burnet[6] all abroad, and meadow wort[7] they throw."
Of wort-cunning Drayton has some store: let us hear what he has to tell us:[8]—
"Of simples in these groves that grow,
We'll learn the perfect skill.
The nature of each herb to know.
Which cures and which can kill."
How much of the knowledge imparted was picked up from old
- ↑ See Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandrie (E.D.S.), p. 42.
- ↑ Tanacetum balsamita, or, as Gerarde says, Balsamita mas.
- ↑ Muscadine, or muscadel, wine was drunk in church at a wedding (see The Taming of the Shrew, act iii. sc. 2); but here, I think, we have reference to some herb; may be to Erodium moschatum. Lelipa, making a wreath in the fifth Nymphal, mixes muscado with lavender, bay, &c. amongst—
"Germander, marjoram, and thyme.
Which used are for strewing." - ↑ Balsamita fem. or vulgaris.
- ↑ Teucrium chamædrys.
- ↑ Sanguis orbia officinalis.
- ↑ Spirea ulmaria.
- ↑ Quest of Cynthia [ii. 626].
head, drinking posset, catching points from the bridegroom, and scrambling for nuts. These observances seem to have been omitted at the otherwise well-appointed nuptial of Tame and Isis. Short-cake, or bride-cake, is still showered over the heads of some northerly brides (Henderson's Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties (F.L.S.), p. 36; Gregor's Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland (F.L.S.), p. 99; Brand's Popular Antiquities (Bohn's edition), vol. ii. pp. 101, 102).
