Para1In the early modern era, marriage was a religious, economic, and practical event for both men and women. In the gentry and nobility, it was a major means of forming alliances, as well as increasing capital and land holdings. In the middle classes, such as among families of merchants and skilled artisans, each partner contributed significantly to the household economy. Profitable marriages also involved a dowry the bride brought to the match—some amount of property, goods, or cash that her family agreed to provide the couple.

Para2Shakespeare’s comedies feature much discussion of dowries, which were negotiated ahead of any betrothal engagement. In The Taming of the Shrew, the father Baptista is willing to match his superficially compliant daughter Bianca to the highest bidder and also offer a suitably extravagant dowry to Petruchio for taking on his more problematic daughter Katerina.

Para3In common with most early modern European societies, the virginity of the bride was of paramount importance. How else could the family of the husband be sure that the blood line was being continued? In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Prospero is adamant that his daughter Miranda and Ferdinand remain chaste before marriage:

If thou Ferdinand dost break her virgin-knot before

All sanctimonious ceremonies may

With full and holy rite be minist’red,

No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall

To make this contract grow; but barren hate,

Sour-eyed disdain, and discord shall bestrew

The union of your bed with weeds so loathly

That you shall hate it both.

(4.1.15–22)

Para4Couples were betrothed with the consent of their parents or guardians. It was a serious breach of protocol for young people to get betrothed without formal approval. Eloping was difficult, mainly due to the requirements in the Church of England about licensing or publicizing upcoming weddings. English couples typically got familial consent and then notified the local Church of England priest, who had the banns read. This was a notification to the community on three successive Sundays in which the couple’s names and their decision to wed was read aloud in the church of their home parish. If this process was not followed, couples has to pay for a license, which was special permission from a bishop that certified there were no impediments (such as previous marriages or blood relationships) that would disqualify the union. Even with a license, couples still had to wait a month. Part of the question surrounding Shakespeare’s marriage concerns the license he had to obtain to marry Anne Hathaway without the banns being read in their parish church of Stratford-upon-Avon.

Para5The ceremony for weddings, formally known as the Solemnization of Matrimony, was established in the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, which contains the language still familiar to 21st century audiences. The minister addresses the bride, Wilt thou have this man to man to thy wedded husband, to live together after God’s ordinance, in the holy estate of Matrimony; wilt thou obey him, and serve him, love, honor, and keep him in sickness and in health; and forsaking all others, keep only unto him, so long as you both shall live? The husband’s language is identical, except that he is to love her, comfort her, honor, and keep only unto her… Modern Church of England marriages leave out the obey part of the vows for the bride.

Para6Despite pressure from authorities, another type of marriage called a handfast marriage was relatively common. This form of marriage dates back to the Middle Ages, when the weddings of country folk left little trace because they were oral transactions. Handfasting involves the joining of the bride and groom’s hands in the presences of witnesses, as well as a public exchange of vows called plighting the troth (pledging the truth).

Para7During the second part of the 1500s, however, the number of handfast marriages began to concern both Church of England officials and parents because it did not require they be informed or approve of the union. Shakespeare himself may have engaged in one, similar to Perdita and Florizel in The Winter’s Tale. Handfasting was encouraged as a binding form of betrothal. Some legal cases resulted from one part of a betrothed couple breaking off the match before the wedding could be solemnized.

Para8Couples typically wore their very best clothes on their wedding day, which means that very few brides would have worn white gowns. The bride was sometimes decked with ears of wheat to symbolize fertility. At the end of the wedding there was a toast in sweet wine—or ale for the less wealthy— as well as a wedding feast that also changed with the couple’s socioeconomic status.

Para9Rings were exchanged, although not necessarily as part of the ceremony. The rings, with the circle symbolizing perfection and gold symbolizing purity and nobility, were often inscribed with poesies (poetry). Grationo, in The Merchant of Venice, attempts to defend giving away his wedding ring: It was a hoop of gold, a paltry / That she did give me, whose posy was ‘love me and leave me notʼ (5.1.147–150).