shevelled 'bout her shoulders."

It has been suggested that the bride's veil, which of late years has
become one of the most conspicuous features of her costume, may be
nothing more than a milliner's substitute, which in old time concealed
not a few of the bride's personal attractions, and covered her face when
she knelt at the altar. Mr. Jeaffreson[718] thinks it may be ascribed to
the Hebrew ceremony; or has come from the East, where veils have been
worn from time immemorial. Some, again, connect it with the yellow veil
which was worn by the Roman brides. Strange, too, as it may appear, it
is nevertheless certain that knives and daggers were formerly part of
the customary accoutrements of brides. Thus, Shakespeare, in the old
quarto, 1597, makes Juliet wear a knife at the friar's cell, and when
she is about to take the potion. This custom, however, is easily
accounted for, when we consider that women anciently wore a knife
suspended from their girdle. Many allusions to this practice occur in
old writers.[719] In Dekker's "Match Me in London," 1631, a bride says
to her jealous husband:

"See, at my girdle hang my wedding knives!
With those dispatch me."

[718] "Brides and Bridals," vol. i. p. 177.

[719] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. ii. pp. 131-133.

In the "Witch of Edmonton," 1658, Somerton says:

"But see, the bridegroom and bride come; the new
Pair of Sheffield knives fitted both to one sheath."

Among other wedding customs alluded to by Shakespeare we may mention
one referred to in "Taming of the Shrew" (ii. 1), where Katharina,
speaking of Bianca, says to her father:

"She is your treasure, she must have a husband:
I must dance bare-foot on her wedding-day,
And, for your love to her, lead apes in hell,"

it being a popular notion that unless the elder sisters danced barefoot
at the marriage of a younger one, they would inevitably become old
maids, and be condemned "to lead apes in hell." The expression "to lead
apes in hell," applied above to old maids, has given rise to much
discussion, and the phrase has not yet been satisfactorily explained.
Steevens suggests that it might be considered an act of posthumous
retribution for women who refused to bear children to be condemned to
the care of apes in leading-strings after death. Malone says that "to
lead apes" was in Shakespeare's time one of the employments of a
bear-ward, who often carried about one of these