cher, for poorer,[132]
in sickness and in health,
to love and to cherish,
till death us do part
and thereto I plight thee my troth."

These words are inserted in our service according to the ancient canon
of England, and even when the Latin mass was sung by the tonsured
priest, the promises which accompany the delivery of the symbolical
pledge of union were repeated by the blushing bride in a more
intelligible tongue.[133] This is a curious and significant fact, and
as we trace out these rhythmical lines farther back in their original
vernacular, the more clearly distinct is their archaic nature.
According to the usage of Salisbury the bride answered:--

"I take thee, John,
to be my wedded husband,
to have and to hold
fro' this day forward
for better, for worse,
for richer, for poorer,
in sycknesse, in hele,
to be bonere and buxom [obedient]
in bedde and at borde
till death do us part
and thereto I plight thee my trothe."[134]

The Welsh manual in the library of the Dean and Chapter of Hereford
has a slight variation in the form, and an older spelling:--

"Ich N. take thee N.
to my weddid wyf,
for fayroure for foulore,
for ricchere for porer,
for betere for wers,
in sicknesse and in helthe,
forte deth us departe,
and only to the holde
and tharto ich plygtte my treuthe."[135]

To this may be added the many local examples of the preservation of
laws or legal formulae by means of their form in verse. The most
interesting of these, perhaps, is that by which the Kentishman
redeemed his land from the lord by repeating, as it was said, in the
language of his ancestors:--

"Nighon sithe yeld
And nighon sithe geld,
And vif pund for the were,
Ere he become healdere."

The first verse,

"Dog draw
Stable stand
Back berend
And bloody hand"

justified the verderer in his punishment of the offender. In King
Athelstane's grant to the good men of Beverley, and inscribed beneath
his effigy in the Minster,

"Als fre
Mak I the
As heart may think
Or eigh may see,"

we have perhaps the ancient form of manumission or
enfranchisement,[136] just as we have the surrender by a freeman who
gave up his liberty by putting himself under the protection of a
master, and becoming his man, still preserved amon