Читать книгу The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 358, February 28, 1829 - Various - Страница 3
YORK TERRACE,
VALENTINE CUSTOMS
Оглавление(To the Editor of the Mirror.)
As some of the customs described by your correspondent W.H.H.1 are left unaccounted for, I suppose any one is at liberty to sport a few conjectures on the subject. May not, for instance, the practice of burning the "holly boy" have its origin in some of those rustic incantations described by Theocritus as the means of recalling a truant lover, or of warming a cold one; and thus translated:—
"First Delphid injured me, he raised my flame,
And now I burn this bough in Delphid's name."
Virgil, too, in his 8th Eclogue, alludes to the same charm:—
"Sparge molam, et fragiles incende bitumine lauros;
Daphnis me malus urit, ego hanc in Daphnide laurum."
"Next in the fire the bays with brimstone burn,
And whilst it crackles in the sulphur, say,
This I for Daphnis burn, thus Daphnis burn away."
DRYDEN.
The "holly bush" being made to represent the person beloved, may also be borrowed from the ancients:—
—–"Terque hæc altaria circum
Effigiem duco."
VIRGIL.
"Thrice round the altar I the image draw."
The burning wax candles may be more difficult to account for, unless it refer to the custom of melting wax in order to mollify the beloved one's heart:—
"As this devoted wax melts o'er the fire,
Let Myndian Delphis melt with soft desire."
THEOCRITUS.
—–"Hæc ut cera liquescit."
—–"Sic nostro Daphnis amore."
VIRGIL.
For a woman to compose a garland was always considered an indication of her being in love. Aristophanes says,
"The wreathing garlands in a woman is
The usual symptom of a love-sick mind."
Should the charms resorted to by lovers two thousand years ago, appear to you, even remotely, to have influenced the love rites as performed by the village men and maidens of the present day, perhaps you may deem this string of quotations worthy of a corner in your amusing miscellany.
E.
1
See No. 356 of the MIRROR, "Valentine's Day."
