THE SCENE: This passage of epic poetry describing William Wallace’s wedding night sounds positively indecent, even after you find out (I had to look it up), that Hymen is the Greek god of marriage.
THE TEXT: To wed with holy
love, the beauteous dame,
Give loose to his desire, and quench the sacred flame.
And now the morning its fair beams display’d,
And music wacken’d into bliss the maid;
Connubial Hymen wav’d his torch on high,
And bade their future life completest joy:
Now live in strictest unity of love,
And from all jarring dissonance remove.
Let, wing’d with pleasure, the soft minutes flow,
And lasting bliss no interruption know,
A rising joy now dawns within his breast,
Of all that heaven could bestow possess:
With pleasure now he runs his dangers o’er,
And fortune’s various face offends no more:
While with like heat, her faithful bosom warms;
For in his time he was the flower of arms.
Thus blooming love extends his soft command,
And joyful Hymen reigns with equal hand.
– The Life and Heroick Actions of the Renoun’d Sir William Wallace, Blind Harry, 15th Century AD
