nances of Henry VII. is one "For the Marriage of a Princess—Then pots of ipocras to be ready, and to be put into cups with sop, and to be born to the estates, and to take a sop and drink." The bowl of wine was used at the wedding of Queen Mary to Philip of Spain at Winchester. And few forget the exaggeration of the custom that is set down in The Taming of the Shrew (iii. 2):
Petruchio "stamped and swore,
As if the vicar meant to cozen him.
But after many ceremonies done,
He calls for wine:—'A health!' quoth he as if
He had been aboard, carousing to his mates
After a storm:—quaffed off the muscadel,
And threw the sops all in the sexton's face;
Having no other reason
But that his beard grew thin and hungerly,
And seemed to ask him sops as he was drinking."
The same Petruchio "took the bride about the neck and kissed her lips with such a clamorous smack that, at the parting, all the church did echo." The act was customary, only the manner was an innovation.
Though the hair of the bride was braided in the wedding procession described above, it hung down her back; and the more frequent custom was to let it fall quite loose. At the marriage of Elizabeth Stuart she wore "her hair dishevelled and hang-
