The shepherd takes the hands of the youth and the maiden. Again the lover exclaims:
“Mark our contract.”
The ceremony is left incomplete, for the princely father discovers himself with:
“Mark your divorce, young sir.”
It appears, therefore, that espousals before witnesses were considered as constituting a valid marriage, if followed up within a limited time by the marriage of the Church. However much the Reformed Church might have endeavored to abrogate this practice, it was unquestionably the ancient habit of the people.[710] It was derived from the Roman law, and still prevails in the Lutheran Church.
Besides exchanging kisses,[711] accompanied with vows of everlasting affection, and whispering lovers’ reassurances of fidelity, it was customary to interchange rings. In Shakespeare’s plays, however, espousals are made with and without the use of the ring. Thus, in the case of Ferdinand and Miranda, we read of their joining hands only (“Tempest,” iii. 1):
“Ferdinand. Ay, with a heart as willing
As bondage e’er of freedom; here’s my hand.
Miranda. An mine, with my heart in’t; and now farewell,
Till half an hour hence.”
In the passage already quoted from “Twelfth Night” (v. 1) there seems to have been a mutual interchange of rings.
Some, indeed, considered that a betrothal was not complete unless each spouse gave the other a circlet. Lady Anne, in “Richard III.” (i. 2), is made to share in this misconception: