PART FOUR - Ecclesiastical Law in Hamlet

The ceremonies at the grave occupied several hours time.

These ceremonies were customary in the Roman Catholic Church for many centuries before the reformation and were in almost general use in the time of Shakespeare, and it is still to a considerable extent the custom and practice in some of the high church dioceses in the Protestant Episcopal Church in England.

It had long been the custom in the Roman Catholic Church to have a crucifix carried by the priest before the corpse in funeral processions. In the time of Edward VI, A.D. 1548, there was a statute that forbid the use of the crucifix and images in church service; this was revived in Elizabeth's reign.

The 21st article of the Episcopal Church was also against it. But the cross could be and was used, if the priest was willing, at funerals in place of the crucifix.

I will say to our readers in England that these practices at funerals in England have never been introduced into the United States or used here by the Roman Catholic Church, or in the Protestant Episcopal Church only to the literal extent required in the book of Common Prayer or by the Roman Catholic Ritual.

The celebration of the Eucharist (the Lord's Supper) at the grave at burials was a common practice in the Roman Catholic Church as early as the 4th century, and was universal in England up to the time of the protestant reformation in Edward VI's reign. The first prayer book of Edward required it. The second book, A.D. 1552, did not require it. When Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne, and restored the protestant worship, she was not satisfied with the extent of burial service required by the act of conformity and the Book of Common Prayer, being King Edward's second book; she desired that the Eucharist should be generally celebrated at the grave at funerals as had been the custom in the Roman Catholic Church. The Latin version of Elizabeth's Prayer Book issued in the second year of her reign required it. This was done by her command and recommendation. In her Majesty's proclamation she declares that some things peculiar at the funerals of Christians she had added and commanded to be used, the act for uniformity set forth in the first year of her reign to the contrary notwithstanding. But the English authorized version of the Book of Common Prayer adopted by Parliament did not require it, although it might properly be done in the discretion of the bishop of the diocese, or the parish priest. It, however, gradually fell into disuse, during the reigns succeeding Queen Elizabeth.

It was an ancient custom to crown the deceased with white flowers and to strew them on the corpse, and to place the crown or garlands on the coffin. The Roman Catholic ritual recommends it in regard to those who die soon after baptism, in token of purity and virginity.

To carry garlands tied with white ribbons before the bier of a maiden and to hang them over her grave was an old custom, and is still the practice in many rural parishes in England. The word "crants" used by Shakespeare, is the old Dutch word for a garland or wreath, and was retained by the Saxons. A word of like sound and meaning is also found in the Lowland Scotch, and in the Danish and Swedish languages.

If the funeral occurred when natural flowers could not be had, evergreens and artificial garlands and wreaths were used for the occasion. In some places these garlands were made of bay leaves and rosemary, and were solemnly carried before the corpse next to the priest, by one or two maidens dressed in white, about the size and age of the deceased maiden. These garlands were laid upon the grave after burial.

In some parts of England and Wales, (Glamorgan in particular) it is the custom when a young couple are to be married their ways to the church are strewed with sweet scented flowers and evergreens. The bridal bed was also covered with flowers. When a young unmarried person dies the corpse is strewed with flowers, and his or her ways to the grave are also strewed with sweet flowers and evergreens, and on such occasions it is the usual phrase that these persons are going to their nuptial beds. When the coffin is opened flowers are strewed upon the deceased. After the coffin is lowered in the grave flowers are again strewed upon it and the sprigs of rosemary are thrown upon it or stuck in the newly covered grave, and after the burial the garlands are laid upon the grave or over it.

These were the "maiden strewments " mentioned by the priest, and was the scattering of flowers and herbs in the way to the grave, and was not the scattering of flowers upon the coffin of deceased. The Queen said of them when she strewed the dead Ophelia:

This custom in England is elsewhere alluded to by Shakespeare. Queen Catherine in Henry VIII. (A 4, S. 2) directs:

In "The Maid's Tragedy," by Beaumont & Fletcher, describe {sic} the capricious melancholy of a broken-hearted girl thus:

In a plaintive ditty sung by the melancholy Ophelia for her lost Hamlet, she said:

In those days it quite became the ambition of young maidens to die in spring time. A contemporary of Shakespeare, Sir Thomas Overbury, describing the "Faire and Happy Milkmaid," observes:

Lighted torches and rosemary were also used at weddings. Many ceremonies and customs relating to weddings and burials that were prescribed or recommended by the various rituals and missals of the old English Church before the Reformation were continued long after, and even to this day some of them are retained. The priests and bishops who came to England while under the Pope introduced into England many wedding and burial customs and ceremonies which were common in Italy, France and Spain, where nearly all of them were educated.

The custom of strewing flowers upon the graves of departed friends is derived from an ancient custom and usage in the Roman Catholic Church.

It was an old rule of the church, and was incorporated in the 67th canon in 1603 that after a person's death there shall be rung by the church bell no more than one short peal, and one other before the burial to call the assembly together, and one other after the burial.

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* This verse is not in edition of 1603, and the word in parentheses in third line is in all except some modern editions. back