Dealings with the Dead, Volume 2 (of 2)Sargent, Lucius M. (Lucius Manlius)
History
Dealings with the Dead, Volume 2 (of 2)
Sargent, Lucius M. (Lucius Manlius)
Death; Funeral rites and ceremonies; Funeral rites and ceremonies -- United States
"Then the gray Amis of Paul's, and three crosses, and the monks of
Westminster, and my Lord Bishop of London, and Lord Abbot of Westminster,
rode together next the monks. Then the two secretaries, Sir Edmund Peckham
and Sir Robert Freston, cofferer to the Queen of England, my Lord Admiral
and Mr. Darcy, of Essex, and many knights and gentlemen. And before her
corpse, her servants, her banner of arms. Then her gentlemen and her head
officers; and then her chariot, with eight banners of arms, consisting of
divers arms, and four banners of images of white taffeta, wrought with
gold, and her arms. And so they passed by St. James's, and thence to
Charing Cross, with an hundred torches burning, her servants bearing them.
And the twelve beadmen of Westminster had new black gowns, bearing twelve
torches burning. There were four white branches with arms; then ladies and
gentlewomen, all in black with their horses; eight heralds of arms, in
black, with their horses, &c., &c. At the church door all did alight; and
there the Lord Bishop of London and the Lord Abbot, in their copes, did
receive the good lady, censing her. Men bore her under a canopy of black
velvet, with four black staves _and so brought her into the hearse_, and
there tarried dirge, remaining there all night, with lights burning."
Ibid. "On the 22d was the hearse of the Lady Anne of Cleves, lately set up
in Westminster Abbey, taken down, which the monks, by night, had spoiled
of all the velvet cloth, arms, banners, pensils, majesty, and valance and
all,--the which was never seen afore so done." Ibid. page 15.
Hence it is manifest, that the _herse_, in the time of Strype, was
identical with the _catafalque_ of the present day. Nevertheless, _herse_
and _catafalque_ are as clearly not convertible terms, since the latter
word can never be correctly applied to a funeral car.
Two and twenty pages of original record are devoted, by Strype, to an
account of the "ceremonies and funeral solemnities, paid to the corpse of
King Henry VIII." These pages are extremely interesting, and full of
curious detail. They also furnish additional evidence, that _the herse_
was then understood to mean all, that is now meant by _the catafalque_.
The works of Strype are not in the hands of very many; and the reader will
not be displeased to know, in what manner they dealt with the dead body of
an English King, some three hundred years ago. A few extracts are all,
that my limits will allow:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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