a man newly married, the spouse of the bride.

The Spartan bridegrooms committed a kind of rape upon their brides. For matters being agreed on between them two, the woman that contrived and managed the match, having shaved the bride's hair close to her skin, dressed her up in man's clothes, and left her upon a mattress: this done, in came the bridegroom, in his usual dress, having supped as ordinary, and stealing as privately as he could to the room where the bride lay, and untying her virgin girdle, took her to his embraces; and having stood a short time with her, returned to his companions, with whom he continued to spend his life, remaining with them by night as well as by day, unless he stole a short visit to his bride, which could not be done without a great deal of circumvention, and fear of being discovered. Among the Romans, the bridegroom was decked to receive his bride; his hair was combed and cut in a particular form; he had a coronet or chaplet on his head, and was dressed in a white garment.

By the ancient canons, the bridegroom was to forbear the enjoyment of his bride the first night, in honour of the nuptial benediction given by the priest on that day*. In Scotland, and perhaps also some parts of England, a custom called marchet, obtained; by which the lord of the manor was entitled to the first night's habitation with his tenant's bride†.