Dagley, Richard [Ill.]: Gems, selected from the antique: with illustrations (London, 1804)

23

.< Thou youth, in purple garb array'd,

Who chief dost on the bride attend ;
Send her thine arm's supporting aid,
The throne of rapture to ascend*.

Ye matrons of experienc'd age,

To your first husbands ever true,
Whose hearts no second loves engage.

Compose the maid in order duef;
Sing, Hymen, source of all our joys,
Sing the sweet god of nuptial ties !

Montfaucon, vol. 3. pi. 132. has given a plate copied from the Admiranda
Romanarum Antiquitatum, in which are three figures, two of which precise-
ly resemble those of this gem. They were originally copied by Bartoli, from
a bas-relief then preserved in the Farnese palace, of which the gem appears
to be an ancient imitation, though the attitude of the pronuba is different.
The figure of the pronuba in the gem is not particularly worthy of notice.
The legs of the bridegroom appear not to be designed correctly. The right leg
is disproportionably long, and the left thigh contracted. But the figure of
the bride, and the easy flow of her drapery, is eminently graceful, and has
probably been occasionally selected by artists of learning as a subject of imi-
tation. If we recollect aright, a bride presented by the allegorical queen of

ing any spell, which some envious rival might have secretly laid there. OviJ, on another occasion, mentions
touching the threshold as a bad omen,

Missa foras iterum limen transire memento

Cautius, atque alte sobria ferre pedem,

-----------------------tread with sober care,

And of the threshold let thy feet beware.

* The poet here addresses the boy or paranymphus, whose particular province it was to wait on the bride, and
attend her to the genial bed; he was chosen of noble birth, and therefore wore the pmtexta, or garb bordered
with purple, and was one whose parents were living-. There were always three attendant paranymphi; one to pre-
cede the bride with a torch, and two others to support her.

•f- It was customary for the bride to be put to bed by a number of good old dames, who had been but once
wedded, such being supposed as most chaste. A second marriage with the Romans was considered as criminal.
We may also add, that the custom of the bride first entering the nuptial bed prevailed in ancient times, as it, has
in more modern ages.

H