CANTO II.]
HUDIBRAS.
339
That Gifts and Dispensations hinder'd,
And turn'd to th' outward man the inward;[1] 300
More proper for the cloudy night
Of Popery than gospel-light:
Others were for abolishing
That tool of matrimony, a ring.[2]
With which th' unsanctify'd bridegroom 305
Is marry'd only to a thumb,[3]
As wise as ringing of a pig,
That us'd to break up ground, and dig;
The bride to nothing but her "will,"[4]
That nulls the after-marriage still: 310
And turn'd to th' outward man the inward;[1] 300
More proper for the cloudy night
Of Popery than gospel-light:
Others were for abolishing
That tool of matrimony, a ring.[2]
With which th' unsanctify'd bridegroom 305
Is marry'd only to a thumb,[3]
As wise as ringing of a pig,
That us'd to break up ground, and dig;
The bride to nothing but her "will,"[4]
That nulls the after-marriage still: 310
- ↑ Transferred the purity which should remain in the heart to the vestment on the back.
- ↑ Persons contracting matrimony were to publish their intentions in the next town, on three market days, and afterwards the contract was to be certified by a justice of the peace: no ring was used, as in the new Marriage Law.
- ↑ The word thumb is used for the sake of rhyme, the ring being put by the bridegroom upon the fourth finger of the woman's left hand: and something more may be meant than meets the ear, as the following extract from No. 614 of the Spectator seems to intimate: "Before I speak of widows, I cannot but observe one thing, which I do not know how to account for; a widow is always more sought after than an old maid of the same age. It is common enough among ordinary people for a stale virgin to set up a shop in a place where she is not known; where the large thumb ring, supposed to be given her by her husband, quickly recommends her to some wealthy neighbour, who takes a liking to the jolly widow that would have overlooked the venerable spinster." Falstaff says:"I could have crept into any alderman's thumb ring."
I. Henry IV., Act ii, sc. 4. - ↑ Mr Warburton thinks this an equivoque, alluding to the response which the bride makes in the marriage ceremony-"I will." But the poet may imply that a woman binds herself to nothing but her own will, for he elsewhere says:The souls of women are so small,
That some believe th' have none at all;
Or, if they have, like cripples, still,
They've but one faculty, the will.
Genuine Remains, vol. i. p. 246.
Latin camisia, a surplice), over their clothes, that they may be distinguished by their comrades.
