Wedding ceremony

4 passages · search this phrase →

Often appears with: marriage and betrothal · festivals, games, and spectacle · wife honoring and obedience · welcoming guests with food · wedding feast · the position of women · sexual consummation anxiety · sealed paper produced by don fernando · royal hospitality · rites of costume change · religious persecution and toleration · music and festivities

Usually: narrative (4) · detachment (2) · wonder (2) · betrayal (1) · the fall of the great (1) · indignation (1)

Quotable

“Hymeneus, that god of wedding is, Saw never his life so merry a wedded man.” Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems · vivid

The Odyssey primary

Homer · 8th–12th century BCE (composed earlier than c. 750 BCE; traditional authorship generally placed in the 8th century BCE)
BOOK I. > BOOK IV (1/15)

Telemachus and Pisistratus arrive in Lacedaemon, are welcomed into Menelaus’s palace for the wedding of his daughter to Achilles’ son, and receive prompt hospitality as servants prepare their horses and supper.

THE VISIT TO KING MENELAUS, WHO TELLS HIS STORY—MEANWHILE THE SUITORS IN ITHACA PLOT AGAINST TELEMACHUS. they reached the low lying city of Lacedaemon, where they drove straight to the abode of Menelaus36 [and found him in his own house, feasting with his many clansmen in honour of the wedding of his son, and also of his daughter, whom he was marrying to the son of that valiant warrior Achilles. He had given his con…

Don Quixote primary

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra · c. 1605–1615
CHAPTER I WHICH TREATS OF THE CHARACTER AND > act in leading the life I do; but as they know, that if I escape from this evil I shall fall into another still greater, perhaps they will set me down as a weak-minded man, or, what is worse, one devoid of reason; nor would it be any wonder, for I myself can perceive that the effect of the recollection of my misfortunes is so great and works so powerfully to my ruin, that in spite of myself I become at times like a stone, without feeling or consciousness; and I come to feel the truth of it when they tell me and show me proofs of the things I have done when the terrible fit overmasters me; and all I can do is bewail my lot in vain, and idly curse my destiny, and plead for my madness by telling how it was caused, to any that care to hear it; for no reasonable beings on learning the cause will wonder at the effects; and if they cannot help me at least they will not blame me, and the repugnance they feel at my wild ways will turn into pity for my woes. If it be, sirs, that you are here with the same design as others have come with, before you proceed with your wise arguments, I entreat you to hear the story of my countless misfortunes, for perhaps when you have heard it you will spare yourselves the trouble you would take in offering consolation to grief that is beyond the reach of it.” (5/9)

Cardenio hides in the hall behind tapestries during Luscinda’s wedding, watches the priest ask consent, hears “I will” from Luscinda and Don Fernando, and then sees Luscinda faint as a sealed paper is discovered.

verified by thy deeds, lady; and if thou hast a dagger to save thy honour, I have a sword to defend thee or kill myself if fortune be against us.’ “I think she could not have heard all these words, for I perceived that they called her away in haste, as the bridegroom was waiting. Now the night of my sorrow set in, the sun of my happiness went down, I felt my eyes bereft of sight, my mind of reason. I could not enter…

The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems primary

Geoffrey Chaucer · c. 1387–1400 (composition of The Canterbury Tales and included poems; some items likely earlier/later)
i.e. > i.e. (38/74)

Walter’s marriage is arranged for him without his choosing being controlled by others, and he publicly declares Griselda as his wife, having her stripped and redressed in new clothing before taking her to the palace.

and y-bore: **stock, race I trust in Godde’s bounte, and therefore My marriage, and mine estate and rest, I *him betake;* he may do as him lest. *commend to him “Let me alone in choosing of my wife; That charge upon my back I will endure: But I you pray, and charge upon your life, That what wife that I take, ye me assure To worship* her, while that her life may dure, *honour In word and work both h…

The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems primary

Geoffrey Chaucer · c. 1387–1400 (composition of The Canterbury Tales and included poems; some items likely earlier/later)
i.e. > i.e. (61/74)

January and May are formally married by a priest in church, followed by a feast with music, wine, and wedding rites, while January is captivated by May and worries about consummation the first night.

Bath, if ye have understand, Of marriage, which ye have now in hand, Declared hath full well in little space; Fare ye now well, God have you in his grace.” And with this word this Justin’ and his brother Have ta’en their leave, and each of them of other. And when they saw that it must needes be, They wroughte so, by sleight and wise treaty, That she, this maiden, which that *Maius hight,* *was named May* As …