Broadside entitled 'Epithalamium'

Commentary

This public announcement continues: 'On the Auspicious Match, betwixt the Right Honourable Lord ALEXANDER MOUNTGOMERY, / And the Truely Vertuous Lady, / ANNA GORDON, / Daughter to the Right Honourable, the Earl of / ABERDEEN.' An epithalamium is a pastoral celebration of a wedding in song or poem form.

Epithalamiums were popular in the classical period and so were revived during the seventeenth century but with more of a pastoral twist. As a result, epithalamium from this period should feature nymphs, shepherds and the appropriate gods and goddesses. This poem conforms to this convention by including such characters as Venus and the Graces.

Broadsides are single sheets of paper, printed on one side, to be read unfolded. They carried public information often for entertainment, such as memorials and eulogies. Cheaply available, they were sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. Although many of the people are now lost to researchers, their stories offer a valuable insight into many aspects of the society they were published in.

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