"Banns" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... appear before the courts of judicature, and should acknowledge herself restored to entire freedom. This was understood to be contrived in a view of obviating all doubts with regard to the validity of her marriage. Orders were then given to publish in the church the banns between the queen and the duke of Orkney; for that was the title which he now bore; and Craig, a minister of Edinburgh, was applied to for that purpose. This clergyman, not content with having refused ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part D. - From Elizabeth to James I. • David Hume
... Mr. Pratt to tell him to put up our banns, or we shan't have time to be cried three times before the first ...
— Joanna Godden • Sheila Kaye-Smith
... the thing that should be good, with an ambiguous sound that gives disagreement to the sense. It is marry-age, or matter o' money. And let any man who is a euphonist, and takes omens from names, attend the publication of banns, he will be quite shocked at the unharmonious combination. Now, you will laugh when I tell you positively, that within a twelvemonth I have heard called the banns of "John Smasher and Mary Smallbones;" no doubt, by ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 337, November, 1843 • Various
... a king's court, and far less on the Lord's day. But, alas! this sport did not last long. Mr Melcomb had come from England to be 'married' to his cousin, Miss Virginia Cayenne, and poor daft Meg never heard of it till the banns for their purpose of marriage was read out by Mr Lorimore on the Sabbath after. The words were scarcely out of his mouth, when the simple and innocent natural gave a loud shriek, that terrified the whole congregation, and ran out of the kirk demented. There was no more finery ...
— The Annals of the Parish • John Galt
... Donna Veronica would know, and Gianluca would have to know it, too. I came here to tell you that they are seriously thinking of sending for the syndic, to publish the banns of marriage at the municipality and marry them legally, after which the Duca and Duchessa will go to Avellino, and leave them here together. Whether it costs your existence or mine, Don Teodoro, this ...
— Taquisara • F. Marion Crawford
... of the age of consent, there wanted no other concurrence to make the marriage valid: and this was agreeable to the canon law. But, by several statutes[n], penalties of 100l. are laid on every clergyman who marries a couple either without publication of banns (which may give notice to parents or guardians) or without a licence, to obtain which the consent of parents or guardians must be sworn to. And by the statute 4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 8. whosoever marries any woman child under the age of sixteen years, without consent of parents or guardians, shall be ...
— Commentaries on the Laws of England - Book the First • William Blackstone
... The banns were verbally published after the benediction following the conclusion of the Mass. In the evening, prior to the marriage, it was compulsory on the couple to confess and obtain absolution from the priest. The ...
— The Philippine Islands • John Foreman
... ahead of fact; and he supposed, not only that Lady Mary must be engaged to John Crewys, but that she must have confided her engagement to her son, and that Peter had already forbidden the banns. ...
— Peter's Mother • Mrs. Henry De La Pasture
... love had got so far, The banns were read by Doctor Daly, Who asked if there was any bar— Why did not some one ...
— The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood • Thomas Hood
... girl she goes with a bombardier Before 'er month is through; An' the banns are up in church, for she's got the beggar hooked, Which is just what a girl ...
— Barrack-Room Ballads • Rudyard Kipling
... and Lord Heddon spoke of the marriage of their offspring as a matter of course. "And if I were not a coward," Sir Austin confessed to himself, "I should stand forth and forbid the banns! This universal ignorance of the inevitable consequence of sin is frightful! The wild oats plea is a torpedo that seems to have struck the world, and rendered it morally insensible." However, they silenced him. He was obliged to spare their feelings on a subject to him so deeply sacred. The ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... boy," he answered, "those things are not done in a moment like roasting chestnuts. There are banns to be published. There is a civil marriage at ...
— Marzio's Crucifix and Zoroaster • F. Marion Crawford
... clandestine marriages which reached its acme in the neighbourhood of the Debtors' Prison in the Fleet, has been made mention of by many writers.[1239] Apart from these glaring scandals there had been up to that date much irregularity in marriages. Banns were an established ordinance; but notwithstanding the remonstrances of some of the clergy, who urged, like Parson Adams, that the Church had prescribed a form with which all Christians ought to comply,[1240] they were, as Walpole says, 'totally in disuse, except among the inferior people.'[1241] ...
— The English Church in the Eighteenth Century • Charles J. Abbey and John H. Overton
... much neglected under the Protectorate; baptism was seldom administered, and the records of St. Saviour's show that marriages were then performed by the magistrates instead of the ordained ministers, the banns ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: Southwark Cathedral • George Worley
... the police inquiring for him cannot put up the banns. Had Daverill seen his way to doing so he would have made light of bigamy. Besides, was it likely his first wife would claim him? He preferred to suppress his real reason for refusing to "make an honest woman" of Miss Julia, and to take ...
— When Ghost Meets Ghost • William Frend De Morgan
... Lancaster in 1715 the Pretender was proclaimed king as James III, and, as we have stated, the Duke of Monmouth was proclaimed king at Taunton and Bridgwater. Charles II received that honour at Lancaster market cross in 1651, nine years before he ruled. Banns of marriage were published here in Cromwell's time, and these crosses have witnessed all the cruel punishments which were inflicted on delinquents in the "good old days." The last step of the cross was often well worn, ...
— Vanishing England • P. H. Ditchfield
... parties to be married outright, by a justice of the peace, without a word of public warning, and then to enjoy the pleasure of outwitting the neighbors, and coming down like a thunderclap on a social sunshine unsuspicious of banns, which had been published on some three literally public days, but when nobody was hearing. That was something worth doing, and ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XI., February, 1863, No. LXIV. • Various
... things, took it down and it was not again posted for two years. The marriage then took place. A few years later the wife died, and after a brief period of mourning another notice was posted announcing the marriage of the widower and the lady who had forbidden the banns of his first marriage. The second marriage took place without interference, and they lived happily ever after, leaving posterity in doubt whether the incident in the church vestibule was the climax in a battle royal between the two ladies ...
— Old Plymouth Trails • Winthrop Packard
... system of petty tyrannical interference. He proposes, therefore, that the poor-law should be abolished. Notice should be given that no children born after a certain day should be entitled to parish help; and, as he quaintly suggests, the clergyman might explain to every couple, after publishing the banns, the immorality of reckless marriage, and the reasons for abolishing a system which had been proved to frustrate the intentions of the founders.[254] Private charity, he thinks, would meet the distress which might afterwards arise, though humanity ...
— The English Utilitarians, Volume II (of 3) - James Mill • Leslie Stephen
... the Manor as foster mother to the young Baron. Well, was it strange that she should accept the proffered settlement in preference to her bearing her disgrace alone? It was arranged there and then that on the following Sunday the banns should be read for the first, second and third time, and that Anders should go home to his own village ...
— Married • August Strindberg
... copy of the banns published by the priest who married them. That is evidence. Moreover, the real book of banns exists, and Giovanni's name is upon the parish register. I have also a copy of the certificate of the civil marriage, which is signed ...
— Saracinesca • F. Marion Crawford
... opens the father, mother, and fianc are found discussing the situation, and finally deciding to let their friends come to the congratulatory festival on first reading of the banns, and pretend that nothing unusual had happened. Afterwards they could ...
— Through Finland in Carts • Ethel Brilliana Alec-Tweedie
... had caused the banns to be published at the town of Worcester; judging rightly that in a great town they would cause no such remark as in a solitary village, and thither he conducted his lady. O ill-starred John Hayes! whither do the dark Fates ...
— Catherine: A Story • William Makepeace Thackeray
... a month's time. Some accounted it unseemly haste, after the other banns which had come to naught, and some said 'twas better so, and they blamed not Parson Fair for placing such a flighty and jilting maid safe within the pale of wedlock—and they guessed he was thankful enough to find a husband for her, even if 'twas ...
— Madelon - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... with any morning-gown on and with any old hat that might come readiest to hand. He wanted neither cards, nor breakfast, nor carriages, nor fine clothes. If his Nora should choose to come to him as she was, he having had all previous necessary arrangements duly made,—such as calling of banns or procuring of licence if possible,—he thought that a father's opposition would almost add something to the pleasure of the occasion. So he pitched the letter on one side, and went on with his article. And he finished ...
— He Knew He Was Right • Anthony Trollope
... o' Bellarmine courted his wife. He took her into the bar an' treated her to a bottle o' gin on the spot. At nine o'clock that evenin' she tuk hold of his stirrup-leather an' walked beside 'en, afoot, up to Castle Cannick. Next day, their banns were axed in church, an' in dree weeks she ...
— Noughts and Crosses • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... marry her—not if I see that she's got the least little bit of a wish to marry you, Claude. I'll play fair. If she changes her mind from the way she is now, and gets so as to be able to think of you again, and wants you—wants you of her own free will—then I'll put up the banns for you myself—and that's ...
— The Side Of The Angels - A Novel • Basil King
... shall not be," protested the Bishop; "the banns must be cried three times in the church. Such is the law of ...
— Robin Hood • J. Walker McSpadden
... History observes, that the Fleet parsons encouraged every kind of villainy. It is astonishing that so great an evil in the heart of London should have been allowed to exist so long, and it was not until the Marriage Act of Lord Hardwicke in 1753, which required the publication of banns, that the Fleet marriages ceased. On the day before the Act came into operation three hundred marriages are said to ...
— The Age of Pope - (1700-1744) • John Dennis
... part sufficiently well. Louisa, whose passion for him increased as the days went on, made no complaint; she was true to her promise, and never mentioned Alison's name, and the wedding day drew on apace. The young people's banns had already been called twice in the neighboring church, the next Sunday would be the third time, and the following Thursday was fixed for the wedding. Jim came home late one evening tired out, and feeling ...
— Good Luck • L. T. Meade
... accomplished in many ways: (1) By the publication of banns; (2) by an ordinary licence; (3) by a special licence; (4) by the Superintendent-Registrar's licence; (5) by a special licence granted by the Archbishop of Canterbury in consideration of the payment of the sum of L25. Then, for persons having a domicile in Scotland, there is the marriage ...
— Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology • W. G. Aitchison Robertson
... marry him, last night," she said, with simple equanimity and directness. "I told him yes, as far as my own wishes went. But I said I wouldn't, if either you or the kitten forbade the banns." ...
— Somehow Good • William de Morgan
... Thirteenth guessed it, too, and when Orsini would have married Vittoria, the Pope forbade the banns and interdicted their union for ever. That much he dared to do against the greatest ...
— Ave Roma Immortalis, Vol. 1 - Studies from the Chronicles of Rome • Francis Marion Crawford
... who is staying with her this winter, tells me that Sallie has had several dreadful scenes with discarded suitors—that one said he would forbid the banns, and another threatened to shoot himself if she really ...
— The Love Affairs of an Old Maid • Lilian Bell
... man's wife, and so forth; and that he was fond of his joke, I discovered from overhearing him ask a stout, fresh-coloured young fellow, with a very pretty bashful-looking girl on his arm, 'when those banns were to be put up?'—an inquiry which made the young fellow more fresh-coloured, and the girl more bashful, and which, strange to say, caused a great many other girls who were standing round, to colour up also, and look anywhere but in the faces ...
— Sunday Under Three Heads • Charles Dickens
... say, "Of all the banns of marriage I ever heard, none gave me half such pleasure as the union of ...
— The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual • William Kitchiner
... had at first been thought of as the period of patience. Charles had a situation as clerk in a shipping office at Westhaven, a small seaport about twenty miles off, and his mother was designing to go to keep house for him, when he announced that his banns had been asked with the daughter of the captain and part-owner of a small trading vessel of ...
— That Stick • Charlotte M. Yonge
... her mind too. Was she really married, after all? Lily did not know much about it. Had the banns been published? And those two witnesses picked up in the street ... a ceremony that took just five minutes ... like a conjuring trick. If it was true that they were "living together" without her knowing it, she would ...
— The Bill-Toppers • Andre Castaigne
... joking. We have exchanged vows. We have plighted our troth. She is mine and I am hers. She has gone from me to win her uncle's consent and to invoke his blessing upon our banns. Soon she ...
— Fibble, D. D. • Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb
... marry them. I replied briefly that there were two religions, Roman Catholic and Church of England. When marriages took place between parties of different Churches, agreement must be made in which Church they would be married; this agreement had already been made in this case, banns had been published, and the bride and her father were both willing, so there was no need for any trouble. Chief Buhkwujjenene said that was enough, and he would go for the party. However, I waited on and on, and at ...
— Missionary Work Among The Ojebway Indians • Edward Francis Wilson
... a day cast a gloom upon our sunshine. So oaths mutually sworn, and invocations of heaven, and priestly ceremonies, and fond belief, and love, so fond and faithful that it never doubted but that it should live for ever, are all of no avail towards making love eternal: it dies, in spite of the banns and the priest; and I have often thought there should be a visitation of the sick for it, and a funeral service, and an extreme unction, and an abi in pace. It has its course, like all mortal things—its beginning, ...
— The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. • W. M. Thackeray
... my going, but that he hoped I should think better of the matter. On my telling him that I must go, he said that he trusted I should put off my departure for three weeks, in order that I might be present at his marriage, the banns of which were just about to be published. He said that nothing would give him greater pleasure than to see me dance a minuet with his wife after the marriage dinner; but I told him it was impossible that I should stay, my affairs imperatively calling ...
— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow
... the road. It is a change of status that quite legitimately interests the whole neighbourhood. But in London there are no neighbours, nobody knows, nobody cares. An absolute stranger in an office took my notice, and our banns were proclaimed to ears that had never previously heard our names. The clergyman, even, who married us had never seen us before, and didn't in any degree intimate that he wanted ...
— Tono Bungay • H. G. Wells
... the Archbishop of Canterbury. From the terms of this commission it is clear that the royal advisers were determined to derive some financial profit from the royal supremacy. The fee for dispensations for solemnising marriage without the proclamation of the banns was fixed at 6s. 8d. (about 3 4s.), for marriage within the prohibited times at 10s., for marriage within the prohibited times and without banns at 13s. 4d., and for marriages to be celebrated without the parish church ...
— History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance • Rev. James MacCaffrey
... the new place in the persons of Indians, I called it St. Paul. The name "Saint Paul," applied to a town or city seemed appropriate. The monosyllable is short, sounds well, and is understood by all denominations of Christians. When Mr. Vetal was married, I published the banns as those of a resident of St. Paul. A Mr. Jackson put up a store, and a grocery was opened at the foot of Gervais' claim. This soon brought steamboats to land there. Thenceforth the place was known as 'Saint Paul Landing,' and later on ...
— The History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier • Charles E. Flandrau
... Julien about this visit. The contract was drawn up with all secrecy and as soon as the banns were published the wedding took ...
— Une Vie, A Piece of String and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant
... had some knowledge of 'the tongues,' so that he added to these attentions the further one of a song or two translated from the Greek. The widow ought to have been pleased, and was. One thing only she stipulated, namely, that the marriage should be private, lest her relations should forbid the banns. ...
— The Wits and Beaux of Society - Volume 1 • Grace Wharton and Philip Wharton
... to her aunt that she meant at once to marry Ludovic Valcarm, and make him master of the house in which they lived, Madame Staubach would have no alternative but to submit quietly; that she would herself go forth and instruct the clergyman to publish the banns, and that Linda might thus become Valcarm's acknowledged wife before the snow was off the ground. Ludovic seemed to have his doubts about this, still signifying his preference for a marriage at Munich. When Tetchen explained to him that Linda would lose her character by travelling with him ...
— Linda Tressel • Anthony Trollope
... Faculties and Dispensations, whereby a privilege or special power is granted to a person by favour and indulgence to do that which by law otherwise he could not: as, to marry, without banns first asked in the church three several Sundays or holy days; the son to succeed his father in his benefice; for one to have two or more benefices incompatible; for non-residence, and in ...
— Old and New London - Volume I • Walter Thornbury
... be procured either at Doctors' Commons or through a clergyman, who must also be a surrogate, and resident in the diocese where the marriage is to take place; both parties must swear that they are of age, or, if minors, that they have the consent of their parents. But to be married by banns is considered the most orthodox as well as the most economical way of proceeding. The banns must be published in the church of the parish in which the lady lives for three consecutive Sundays prior to the marriage, also the same law holds good ...
— Manners and Social Usages • Mrs. John M. E. W. Sherwood
... end of August, and the banns were to be published for November. The Baron was to arrange for the marriage in Brussels, but it was agreed that the young couple should live in Paris, and the Countess proposed to pick out a pretty house to shelter the happiness ...
— The Idol of Paris • Sarah Bernhardt
... to hire it, and live there with Cesarine. Your wife is on his side. They have had the banns published without saying anything about it, so as to force you to consent. Popinot says there will be much less merit in marrying Cesarine after you are reinstated. You take six thousand francs from the king, and you won't accept ...
— Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau • Honore de Balzac
... only thing I don't see is how I am to influence her. You've no doubt told her and fully explained to her what the consequences would be if you were to publish the banns." ...
— Spring Days • George Moore
... evening. If you play your cards well, Maggie, he will leave you well provided for, as he is quite rich—of course, not rich like those people you are staying near, but rich for his class. I am very much pleased myself at the engagement. Our banns were called last Sunday in church, and we are to be married in a fortnight. After that, you had best stay on here until we desire you to join ...
— The School Queens • L. T. Meade
... Flintwinch, 'I think so! I sits me down and says it. Well!—Jeremiah then says to me, "As to banns, next Sunday being the third time of asking (for I've put 'em up a fortnight), is my reason for naming Monday. She'll speak to you about it herself, and now she'll find you prepared, Affery." That same day she spoke to me, and she said, "So, ...
— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens
... to hear our banns shouted aloud in the teeth of all New York?" she whispered mischievously. "Mercy on me! if you turn as red as a Bushwick pippin they will declare ...
— The Reckoning • Robert W. Chambers
... where he continued many years, and met with many trials of his fortitude and fidelity. In the year 1567, the earl of Bothwel, having obtained a divorce from his lawful wife, as preparatory to his marriage with queen Mary she sent a letter to Mr. Craig, commanding him to publish the banns of matrimony betwixt her and Bothwel. But the next sabbath, having declared at length that he had received such a command, he added, that he could not in conscience obey it, the marriage being altogether unlawful, and that he would declare to the parties ...
— Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) • John Howie
... the clergyman to call in church the banns of marriage between Reginald Falcon and ...
— A Simpleton • Charles Reade
... objection to her being married. I hope she will, with all my heart. I certainly think she should have her husband after buying him at such a price. I suppose Lord Fawn won't forbid the banns." These last words were only whispered to her next neighbour, Lord Chiltern; but poor Lord Fawn saw the whisper, and was aware that it must have ...
— The Eustace Diamonds • Anthony Trollope
... intentions—as if I had never intended to deal seriously with you, as if—enough! That lasted until I got this in my hands, and the credulous little man-crazy fool will find out what I meant when she hears the banns of our marriage published ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IX - Friedrich Hebbel and Otto Ludwig • Various
... priest and the policeman. Fortunately the priest won. The baroness wrote in person to the father for his consent, advancing Mozart 1,000 gulden to cover the 500 gulden which Constanze would have as a marriage portion; and secured their release from the delayful necessity of publishing the banns. ...
— The Love Affairs of Great Musicians, Volume 1 • Rupert Hughes
... honourable town clerk of this pasthoral an' marine community. Ladies an' gintlemen, was ye iver invited before to the weddin' of a man of me impressive looks an' oratorical gifts, that first published his own banns, an' thin proposed, in your intelligent an' sympathetic prisence, to a lady of exalted ancesthry an' pre-eminent fame? Ye was not? Ye have now that unparallelled experience. For, as ye see by this license an' authority, this lady, the Lineal Descendant of Mexican ...
— The Belted Seas • Arthur Colton
... in North and South Holland are very different to the former. As soon as a couple are 'aangeteekend,' i.e. when the banns are published for the first time (which does not happen in church, but takes the form of a notice put up at the Town Hall), and have returned from the 'Stadhuis,' they drive about and take a bag of sweets ('bruidsuikers') ...
— Dutch Life in Town and Country • P. M. Hough
... why I wish you to do without his consent. If you will board the steamer with me to-morrow night, we will go to England and there we can be married without the publishing of banns, and before any one can ...
— Ilka on the Hill-Top and Other Stories • Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen
... or pauper institution, if either or both of the parties are competent to financial support of the twain, if there is any "just cause or impediment" against the legal union. We may find it wise to return to the old "three weeks publishing of the banns" in order to know what the state is about in granting and what two people are about in demanding a marriage license. In the second place, there are limits outside of which society should not allow legal marriage to receive ...
— The Family and it's Members • Anna Garlin Spencer
... be just time, Dermot declared, if he put up our banns the very next Sunday, to go through with it before the time Pippa had appointed for receiving Dora, and it would save all the trouble of hunting up a surrogate and startling him with his ...
— My Young Alcides - A Faded Photograph • Charlotte M. Yonge
... Ern., and NOT. Forbear! This may not be! Frustrated are your plans! With paramount decree The Law forbids the banns! ...
— The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan - The 14 Gilbert And Sullivan Plays • William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
... dance attendance before I was allowed to see the future Vicomte d'Aubrion. Though all Paris is talking of his marriage and the banns ...
— Eugenie Grandet • Honore de Balzac
... lighten the burdens of these people, that they might not weary of their constant attendance at church, for the doctrine, catechism, mass, and sermon—not to mention the frequent publication of the marriage banns, and the fact that mass is solemnly celebrated with music and the accompaniment of the organ, in which they spend many hours—we thought it best to reserve the doctrine and the catechism for Sundays in the afternoon, and even then not all the people were obliged ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XII, 1601-1604 • Edited by Blair and Robertson
... but glad. All the same, the banns were published and the wedding day was fixed. So Brita came down to the Ingmar Farm to help mother. I say, mother is getting old and feeble.' 'I see nothing wrong in all that, little Ingmar,' says father, as ...
— Jerusalem • Selma Lagerlof
... For what?" asked Maggie, and the excited woman answered: "To stop it! To forbid the banns! I should think you'd ...
— Maggie Miller • Mary J. Holmes
... or as Bartholinus has treated a fellow-creature in his title-page, and, having divested them of the one essential and perfectly fitting garment, indispensable in the mildest climates, nailed the same on the church-door as we do the banns of marriage, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, March, 1858 • Various
... would some day have fallen in love with somebody else. And that would have been a regular business. Convenience, Friendship, and other hard-working matchmakers would all have put shoulders to the wheel and clapped one another on the back when the banns were published. The fact that the two had met saved, in a way, ...
— Anthony Lyveden • Dornford Yates
... was well founded. The count did marry. The fact could not be doubted any longer, when the banns were read, and the announcement appeared in the official journal. And whom do you think he married? The daughter of a poor widow, the Baroness Rupert, who lived in great poverty at a place called Rosiers, having nothing but a small pension derived from ...
— The Clique of Gold • Emile Gaboriau
... certain that from that day Mary steadily improved until she was as well as ever. "No special license for me," John had said sturdily. "It looks as if we were ashamed of what we are doing, as though we hadn't the best right to be married of any two folk in the parish." So the banns were put up accordingly, and three times it was announced that John Huxford, bachelor, was going to be united to Mary Howden, spinster, after which, no one objecting, they were duly married accordingly. "We may not have very long in this world," said old John, ...
— The Captain of the Pole-Star and Other Tales • Arthur Conan Doyle
... ballocks. As I say marry, so do I understand that thou shouldst fall to work as speedily as may be; yea, my meaning is that thou oughtest to be so quick and forward therein, as on this same very day, before sunset, to cause proclaim thy banns of matrimony, and make provision of bedsteads. By the blood of a hog's-pudding, till when wouldst thou delay the acting of a husband's part? Dost thou not know, and is it not daily told unto thee, that the end of the world approacheth? We are nearer it by three poles and half a fathom than ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais
... note, by the way, a return on Mr. Mitchell's part to that convenient assumption of the Restoration and eighteenth century comedy writers that any one in holy orders could solemnize a legal marriage at any time or place, without the slightest formality of banns, witnesses, registration or anything of the sort. One gathers that in New York the entrance to and the exit from the holy estate of matrimony are equally prompt and easy; or that, as one of the characters puts it, "the church is ...
— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: The New York Idea • Langdon Mitchell
... public with him, in order to announce the betrothal. Wednesday the marriage contract will be read. Thursday a grand dinner-party. Friday an exhibition of the marriage presents; Saturday a day of rest; Sunday the publication of the banns, and at the end of the following week ...
— The Champdoce Mystery • Emile Gaboriau
... you. No, no, I am an old bird, but I have not forgotten the ways of the fledgelings. 'Hopeless bachelor,' sir, is a sweetmeat in every young man's mouth until of a sudden he finds it sour, and that means the banns. ...
— The Little Minister • J.M. Barrie
... cried Lucilla, rallying her sauciness, 'how do you propose ever to have banns to publish, if young men and maidens are never to meet by water ...
— Hopes and Fears - scenes from the life of a spinster • Charlotte M. Yonge
... shone with kindliness. But making a gesture for patience, he hurried on. "Father Soria here," he said, "will come in the morning, just before the—the execution, to perform the ceremony. A judge of the Republic will come too, for the civil marriage. As to the banns——" ...
— The Missourian • Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle
... day came, a town-crier was sent round the city to proclaim the "banes" or banns.[6] Arms were forbidden: "We command that no man go armed in this city with swords ne with carlill-axes, in disturbance of the king's peace and the play, or hindering of the procession of Corpus Christi, and that they leave their harness ...
— Everyman and Other Old Religious Plays, with an Introduction • Anonymous
... him. He laughed most immoderately. The idea of Edward's being a clergyman, and living in a small parsonage-house, diverted him beyond measure;—and when to that was added the fanciful imagery of Edward reading prayers in a white surplice, and publishing the banns of marriage between John Smith and Mary Brown, he could conceive ...
— Persuasion • Jane Austen |
