ST. VALENTINE’S DAY

Evening Star, Issue 22882, 14 February 1938, Page 16

ST. VALENTINE’S DAY

AN OLD-TIME CUSTOM lECAUEB (‘ Weekly Scotsman.’) The fourteenth of February was St. Valentino’s Day. We do not know very much about this saint, except that he is believed to have been martyred in the fourth century A.n. It is not, however, on account of his martyrdom that we remember him, but simply because of the date, the fourteenth of February. In days of old it was generally believed that the fourteenth day of February was the day upon which the birds of the air chose their mates; and so the day came to be associated with love affairs and lovers. It was an old custom of St. Valentine’s Day to choose a lover or “ valentine ” by drawing lots. We find a reference to this custom in Pepys’s Diary, where he says; “ I find that Mrs Pierce’s little girl is my valentine, she having drawn me.” Reference to St. Valentine’s Day is also made by Shakespeare in the following stanza:— To-morrow’s St. Valentine’s Day* All in the morning betime; And I a maid at your window, To be your valentine. Until 40 or 50 years ago it was a general custom for young men _ and maidens to send love letters and highly ornate notes of greeting to one another upon St. Valentine’s Day. Those letters were elaborately ornamented after, the style of expensive Christmas or birthday cards, but they had rather the form of a letter than a card, and the • greetings were of a highly amatory nature. CUPID’S DART. Those valentines were sometimes costly. They were delieately perfumed, and the designs upon them frequently hand painted. The edges of the dainty missive and the box in which it was sent were adorned with frills of fine lace paper. * The pictures upon those love messages were naturally suited to their subject. Hearts, often pierced by a dart; hands lovingly clasped together, and turtle doves were favourites; .while little fat Cupids, gaily disporting themselves amongst roses—typical of love—and wreaths of forget-me-nots, rosemary, and other flowers having sentimental associations were also freely used. The poetical effusions which accompanied those love offerings were to be prized more for their sentimental than for any literary merit. These poems were usually very brief, consisting generally of two or four lines. Here is an example; Take me for my heart is thine. Let me be thy Valentine. Another runs: Time and youth must pass away, Thy Valentine am I for aye. • Still another saysf My heart is true, my love is strong, Thy Valentine I’d be, My dear, I’d never do thee wrong, But faithful prove to thee. A verse which accompanied a picture heart dripping blood ran A bleeding heart you see is here. Believe it bleeds for you, my dear. Oh; dear one, heal my wounded heart. My Valentine, we ne’er shall part. These are typical examples of the message of the sentimental type of valentine. MOCK VALENTINES. But therd was another and altogether different type of missive which was also sent freely on St. Valentine’s Day. Those were known as “ mock ” valentines. They were crudely printed in glaring colo.urs .upon large sheets of cheap paper. They were of immense size, though they cost but a halfpenny or a penny, and they resembled show bills rather than any cards of greeting as at present known to us. Small shops made a brave display of those rather vulgar productions, and’ they were bought extensively by the .class to whom such things appeal. Those valentines depicted all sorts of faults and failings. Drunkenness would be represented by a red-nosed individual leaning helplessly up against a lamppost. This would be sent—anonymously, of course—to someone with that particular weakness. A sluggard would get a picture depicting someone in bed while the hands of a nearby clock pointed to a late hour, Greed would be represented by a fat boy robbing the pantry, and so on. Fat policemen embracing cooks, or being regailed by them with cakes and ale; soldiers and sailors with a sweetheart hanging upon either arm, fathers and mothers of very large- families, w,ere all held up to ridicule by means of the mock valentine. The messages upon those comic valentines were often very insulting, and it is more than likely that this form of Valentine was just a faint echo of the old lampoon which was carried to such excess in the reign of Charles 11. The name “lampoon” came from the burden sung to those “ Lampone, lampone, camerada lampone,” which Sir Walter Scott translates, “ Guzzler, guzzler, my fellow guzzler!” There is no doubt the “ mock ” valentine was used to point out faults and weaknesses in a rude and vulgar fashion. One cannot regret the passing of those. The valentine of sentiment was, however, highly prized by Victorian damsels, and the maiden whom no man chose to make his valentine on the Day of St. Valentine, must have felt very much out in the cold. How the pretty fashion of sending love tokens at this particular season came to die I do not know. Perhaps, even to-day, there might be found some of those old valentines, faded and yellow with age. Possibly such are hidden away in secret drawers, or perhaps lie side by side in some old silk-lined work-box of rosewood, with a faded rose, a knot of ribbon, speaking of love incidents long forgotten ! We sigh as we read the simple message so long and carefully locked away: My love, to you I will be true. Oh be my Valentine!