occasionally,
during the benediction, the married couple only sat on the bed; but
they generally received a portion of the consecrated bread and wine. It
is recorded in France, that, on frequent occasions, the priest was
improperly detained till midnight, while the wedding guests rioted in
the luxuries of the table, and made use of language that was extremely
offensive to the clergy. It was therefore ordained, in the year 1577,
that the ceremony of blessing the nuptial-bed should for the future be
performed in the day-time, or at least before supper, and in the
presence of the bride and bridegroom, and of their nearest relations
only.

On the morning after the celebration of the marriage, it was formerly
customary for friends to serenade a newly married couple, or to greet
them with a morning song to bid them good-morrow. In "Othello" (iii. 1)
this custom is referred to by Cassio, who, speaking of Othello and
Desdemona, says to the musicians:

"Masters, play here; I will content your pains:
Something that's brief; and bid, 'Good morrow, general.'"

According to Cotgrave, the morning-song to a newly married woman was
called the "hunt's up." It has been suggested that this may be alluded
to by Juliet (iii. 5), who, when urging Romeo to make his escape, tells
him:

"Some say the lark and loathed toad change eyes;
O, now I would they had chang'd voices too!
Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
Hunting thee hence with hunt's-up to the day.
O, now be gone."

In olden times torches were used at weddings--a practice, indeed, dating
as far back as the time of the Romans. From the following lines in
Herrick's "Hesperides," it has been suggested that the custom once
existed in this country:

"_Upon a maid that dyed the day she was marryed._

That morne which saw me made a bride,
The ev'ning witnest that I dy'd.
Those holy lights, wherewith they guide
Unto the bed the bashful bride,
Serv'd but as tapers for to burne
And light my reliques to their urne.
This epitaph which here you see,
Supply'd the Epithalamie."[723]

[723] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. ii. p. 159.

Shakespeare alludes to this custom in "1 Henry VI." (iii. 2), where Joan
of Arc, thrusting out a burning torch on the top of the tower at Rouen,
exclaims:

"Behold, this is the happy wedding torch,
That joineth Rouen unto her countrymen."

In "The Tempest," t