In the olden time the christening of a child was an occasion of feasting and gift-giving. It was an ancient custom for the sponsors to make a present of silver or gilt spoons to the infant. These were called "apostle spoons," because the end of the handle was formed into the figure of one of the apostles. The rich or generous gave the whole twelve; those less wealthy or liberal limited themselves to the four evangelists; while the poor contented themselves with the gift of a single spoon.
There is an allusion to this custom in Henry VIII. (v. 3. 168), where the King replies to Cranmer, who has professed to be unworthy of being a sponsor to the baby Elizabeth, "Come, come, my lord, you'd spare your spoons,"—a playful insinuation that the archbishop wants to escape making a present to the child.
ANCIENT FONT AT STRATFORD
It is related that Shakespeare was godfather to one of Ben Jonson's children, and said to his friend after the christening, "I' faith, Ben, I'll e'en give him a dozen good Latin spoons, and thou shalt translate them." That is, as Mr. Thoms explains it, "Shakespeare, willing to show his wit, if not his wealth, gave a dozen spoons, not of silver, but of latten, a name formerly used to signify a mixed metal resembling brass, as being the most appropriate gift to the child of a father so learned."
After baptism at the church a piece of white linen was put upon the head of the child. This was called the "chrisom" or "chrisom-cloth," and originally was worn seven days; but after the Reformation it was kept on until the churching of the mother. If the child died before the churching, it was buried with the chrisom upon it. In parish registers such infants are often referred to as "chrisoms." In Henry V. (ii. 3. 12), Dame Quickly says of Falstaff, "A' made a finer end, and went away an it had been any christom child"; that is, his death was like that of a young infant. "Christom" is the old woman's blunder for "chrisom."
The "bearing-cloth" was the mantle which covered the child when it was carried to the font. In the Winter's Tale (iii. 3. 119), the Shepherd, when he finds the infant Perdita abandoned on the sea-shore, says to his son: "Here's a sight for thee; look thee, a bearing-cloth for a squire's child! Look thee here; take up, take up, boy; open 't." John Stow, writing in the closing years of the 16th century, says that at that time it was not customary "for godfathers and godmothers generally to give plate at the baptism of children, but only to give 'christening shirts,' with little bands and cuffs, wrought either with silk or blue thread. The best of them, for chief persons, were edged with a small lace of black silk and gold, the highest price of which, for great men's children, was seldom above a noble s. 8d.], and the common sort, two, three, or four, and six shillings apiece."
The "gossips' feast" (or sponsors' feast) held in honor of those who were associated in the christening, was an ancient English custom often mentioned by dramatists and other writers of the Elizabethan age. In the Comedy of Errors (v. 1. 405) the Abbess, when she finds that the twin brothers Antipholus are her long-lost sons, says to the company present:—
"Thirty-three years have I but gone in travail