[125] King Henry VIII., Act 5, Scenes 1, 2.
[126] See also Antiquitat. Britannicæ, 334, 336; Burnet, 327, et seq.
[127] Encyc. Am., Art. Venice. And see Scott’s Discovery of Witchcraft (1665,) p. 152.
[128] In the Gentleman’s Magazine for March, 1798, p. 184, is a minute account of this ceremony, which somewhat varies from the above: “On Ascension Day, the Doge, in a splendid barge, attended by a thousand barks and gondolas, proceeds to a particular place in the Adriatic. In order to compose the angry gulf and procure a calm, the patriarch pours into her bosom a quantity of holy water. As soon as this charm has had its effect, the Doge, with great solemnity, through an aperture near his seat, drops into her lap a gold ring, repeating these words, ‘Desponsamus te, Mare, in signum veri perpetuique dominii.’ ‘We espouse thee, O sea! in token of real and perpetual dominion over thee.’”
[129] Dictionary of Dates, Adriatic.
[130] See Smedley’s Sketches of Venetian History, referred to in note [A] to Byron’s Works.
[131] He is under obligations to the Reverend Thomas S. Preston for this.
[132] Gavazzi’s Lectures, (New-York ed.,) 185.
[133] London Gent.’s Mag. for 1848, p. 599.
[134] Eadmer, Histor. Nov., l. i. p. 16.