Valentine's Day

“ For youth to be bold;
So the brave and the fair
May venture to dare,
Like the birds of the air,
Their feelings unfold.
This day of the year,
To the young very dear,
Suggests to the heart
A sweet happiness near;
And a hope bright and gay,
May tempt them to say,
On St. Valentine’s Day,
Words tender and queer.
Shy lovers, begin,
Faint hearts never win,
Nor is it a sin
[66] To love wisely and well;
And the coy and the fair
May be yearning to hear,
At least once a year,
What a lover might tell.
So, gents, your attention ”

“ Was Valentine very good, and is it his birthday as Christmas is Christ's birthday?"
"Mercy, no! What queer things you do ask when you get going, Polly! Valentine's Day is just Valentine's Day, when folks send these poetry and picture things for fun, and don't sign their own names, only 'Your Valentine,' and that means somebody who has chosen—chosen to be your—well, your beau, maybe."
"What's a beau?" asked innocent Polly.
"Polly, you don't know anything!" cried Jane, in an exasperated tone. "A beau is—is somebody who likes you better 'n anybody else." ”

“ One comfort I had in all this—if my valentine could not reach him, that of no other female could; and my offer is sure to be first, though I shouldn't wonder if that girl who sent him her card tied round a canary bird's neck might try. She's forward enough, anyway.
Then, there is another comfort—Valentine's Day don't cover the whole Leap Year, and there are other men than the great Grand Duke in the world. We females have a whole twelvemonths to try our luck in. ”

“ And, consequently, if, as is very likely, our Valentine’s Day is an English rendering of le jour des Valentins, we ought to write Valentines’ Day, as meaning the day of valentines, and not Valentine’s Day = the day of Valentine. And the absence of the word Saint points to this conclusion also, for I do not know that in this Protestant country a saint has been robbed of his saintship, as he has occasionally been in Catholic France. ”

“ Valentine’s day, the young folks in England and Scotland, by a very ancient custom, celebrate a little festival. An equal number of maids and bachelors get together, and each writes their true or some feigned name upon separate billets, which they roll up, and draw by way of lots, the maids taking the men’s billets, and the men the maids’; so that each of the young men lights upon a girl that he calls his Valentine, and each of the girls upon a young man which she calls hers. ”

“ VALENTINE'S DAY Hail to thy returning festival, old Bishop Valentine! Great is thy name in the rubric, thou venerable Archflamen of Hymen! ”

“ Valentine's Day the children gathered around the sitting-room table and began to make valentines. They had paper of various colors and pictures cut from old magazines. They worked very hard, and some of the valentines thus manufactured were as good as many that could be bought.
"Oh, I saw just the valentine for Freddie," whispered Nan to Bert. "It had a fireman running to a fire on it." ”

“ Valentine’s Day was kept as a joyous festival, the drawing of a kind of lottery took place, followed by ceremonies not much unlike what is now generally called the game of ‘forfeits.’ Married and single persons were alike liable to be chosen as a valentine, and a present was invariably given to the choosing party. ”

“ THE PILLERS. I.—THE NIGHTINGALE. SINCE the first cuckoo, weeks ago, their talk had been of little but the coming of the anemones and bluebells, the pairing of the birds in hedgerow and brake and copse, and all the merry bustle of the spring of the year; so that you might have imagined that, hale men and buxom women as well as the younger sort, the posy-verses of the last Valentine’s Day had left them all poetical crazy. ”

“ Valentine’s day, it is customary, in many parts of Italy, for an unmarried lady to choose, from among the young gentlemen of her acquaintance, one to be her guardian or gallant; who, in return for the honor of this appointment, presents to her some nosegays, or other trifles, and thereby obliges himself to attend her in the most obsequious manner in all her parties of pleasure, and to all her public amusements, for the space of one year, when he may retire, and the lady may choose another in his place. ”

“ Amos. Valentine’s Day once more! Strange I can’t get it out of my head! Just forty years since Polly jilted me! Why, I wonder? I never did understand. I was so sure that she cared for me—but there! Womankind is fickle. She never married, though, nor I either, big fool that I was! I couldn’t seem to help comparing every girl I met with her, and they suffered by comparison, and so here I am, a bachelor of sixty, wanting nothing but the one thing I never shall have—a wife and home of my own. (Puts a card photograph, such as were taken forty years ago, back into desk.) ”

“ Agnes are dear to Lovers, and as every day is Somebody’s Birthday, there are celebrations continually. Mayday, too, is a pleasant occasion, and on that day there are May-parties all over the place, for Arcady is a Land where it is always Saturday Afternoon.
THE LAY OF LOTHARIO LEE
Lothario Lee was saddened, the world seemed grim and gray;
For Lothario Lee was a lover bold, and today was St. Valentine’s Day.
’Twas St. Valentine’s Day, and he fain would send his heart to the fair Florelle,
For the radiant maid had inspired in his breast a passion he could not quell. ”

“ Valentine, and I'm in scribbling mood.
Pray, are you, sir, in love, or not? what's more, in love with me?
Pray, answer, for I'll frankly own I feel a love for thee.
Love has dropt in,—I know not how,—so, 'tis my heart's design
To choose you, sir, to be my beau, my constant Valentine.
What eyes, mouth, and nose! who d'ye think, would incline
To choose such an object for—Sweet Valentine.
From such a grim figure, I'm sure, any day,
I can't wonder Cupid is riding away.
E'en the donkey he rides appears frightened to see
An ugly old fellow, so much uglier than he. ”

“ Louise. Well, the pretty one goes to Reginald, and the homely one goes to Freddie, ’cause I’m mad on him!
Bobby. What you mad at Freddie for?
Louise. ’Cause he said Valentine’s Day was silly, and he shouldn’t send one.
Bobby. Ho, ho! And you wanted him to send you one!
Louise. No such thing! He can keep his old valentines, if he wants to. I’m going to send a lovely one to Reginald. He’s got sense enough to ’preciate it, maybe. And I got a horrid comic one of a miser, all ragged and thin, gnawing a bare bone, like a dog, with his money all piled up around him. ”

“ He says: "My heart will constant prove, Since every beat of it is thine; The sweetest joy of life is love." The birds are mating in the grove— The day is yours, St. Valentine.
What matter that the wind blows chill Through leafless tree and naked vine, That snowdrifts linger on the hill, When warm love makes the pulses thrill? The day is yours, St. Valentine.
[249]
TWO JUNE NIGHTS.
A red rose in my lady's hair, A white rose in her fingers, A wild bird singing low, somewhere, A song that pulses, lingers. ”

“ In London this day is ushered in by the thundering knock of the postman at the different doors, through whose hands some thousands of Valentines pass for many a fair maiden in the course of the day. Valentines are, however, getting very ridiculous, if we may go by the numerous doggrels that appear in the print-shops on this day. As an instance, I transmit the reader a copy of some lines appended to a Valentine sent me last year. Under the figure of a shoemaker, with a head thrice the size of his body, and his legs forming an oval, were the following rhymes:—
Do you think to be my Valentine? ”

“ Valentine’s Day.
I notice that all the correspondents of ‘N. & Q.’ who have troubled themselves about the derivation of the word valentine (See 3rd S. iii. 128; 5th S. v. 141; ix. 289, 418) agree in deriving it not from the name of the saint, but from galantin (=petit galant) , the g being changed into v. And this view they support either by quoting dictionaries of Norman patois, such as Dubois and Duméril, in which valentin is given =galantin, or other French authors who have written about Normandy, and who have expressed this opinion. ”

“ Valentine will be celebrated. Celebrated this year, we venture to assert, with a pomp and circumstance very far beyond that of any other February since the office of Juno gave a name to the month. Celebrated in a way to demonstrate the growing estimation in which the kindly feelings are held.
This will be as it should be. A day has been found in which all may have an occasion for present pleasure; some (and most) to be active in the circulation of those delicate compositions or handy-works which express regard and sometimes promote affection ”

“ Did you ever lose one?
Amos. Never. A valentine forty years old will be rather stale, I fear. Perhaps the lady—I believe you said it was a lady—may have been married for years to some other man. She may be a grandmother now, and may laugh at the effusion of the callow youth of the olden time.
Pauline. She won’t, I’m sure. And she isn’t a grandmother, for she never married. She has been faithful to a faithless lover all these years, and I believe that lost valentine is at the bottom of the whole trouble. ”

“ Why, smarter bonnets we may meet,
Amongst the belles of Regent Street,
And smarter buy, with trimmings gay,
For four-and-nine-pence, any day;
But though you sport a bonnet blue,
And though that bonnet may be new,
And though in splendid dress you shine,
You shall not be my Valentine.
If in love he would fall, let the amorous swain
Behold you, when caught in a shower of rain;
Let him then see you striving your shape to display,
As through mud and through puddles you wriggle your way. ”

“ Cupid and the Fairy should precede the procession; next should come one of the tiny Pages, with the ring on a velvet cushion. Bluebell and Rosebud follow, as flower girls, then the Queen, followed by her Maidens, two by two. No change is necessary in any of the costumes but to add a long veil of mosquito netting to the Queen’s costume. At the altar, St. Valentine meets her, and they arrange themselves as for the ceremony, the Bride and Groom kneeling before the Clergyman. The curtain may fall on this tableau, or they may rise, and march out, to the wedding march, if desired. ”

“ No popular respect will I omit
To do thee honor on this happy day,
When every loyal lover tasks his wit
His simple truth in studious rhymes to pay,
And to his mistress dear his hopes convey.
Rather thou knowest I would still outrun
All calendars with Love's,—whose date alway
Thy bright eyes govern better than the Sun,—
For with thy favor was my life begun;
And still I reckon on from smiles to smiles,
And not by summers, for I thrive on none
But those thy cheerful countenance complies:
Oh! if it be to choose and call thee mine,
Love, thou art every day my Valentine. ”

“ Do you know what Valentine Day means, Davie?”
“It means sending funny pictures to the other fellows,” grinned Davie.
“First of all, it means a Love Day,” said Mrs. Forbes, “and valentines are supposed to be sweethearts' love letters. But I don't see why sweethearts should have a corner on love, do you, Davie?” ”

“ Gie us a penny an’ we’ll gie out [cease] . [Pg 290] In the northern part of Northamptonshire sweet currant buns were formerly made called Valentine buns, and given by godparents to their godchildren on the Sunday preceding and the Sunday following Valentine’s Day. A like custom once prevailed in Rutland, where a lozenge-shaped bun called a Shittle was given to children and old people on Valentine’s Day.
For the farmer, Valentine’s Day means that half your firing and half your hay is already consumed. In Rutland there is an old saying: Valentine’s Day, sow your beans in the clay. ”

“ Fortune having thus divided the company into so many couples, the Valentines give balls and treats to their mistresses, wear their billets several days upon their bosoms or sleeves, and this [99] little sport often ends in love. There is another kind of Valentine, which is the first young man or woman that chance throws in your way in the street, or elsewhere, on that day.
In some places, says Hone (Every Day Book, vol. i. p. 226) , at this time, and more particularly in London, the lad’s Valentine is the first lass he sees in the morning, who is not an inmate of the house ”

“ I don’t suppose any woman lives to be thirty without liking some one well enough to marry him, if circumstances came about right. But there! They don’t always do it. Would you like to see my old valentines, Pauline?
Pauline. Oh, I would, so much, Auntie dear!
Aunt P. (opening top drawer of stand) . Well, dearie, here they are. No post-cards among them. Most of them came from the same one, as you see. This is the last one he ever sent me. ”

“ In the afternoon, Hazel received a box by messenger, with, "Please return by bearer," on the wrapper. On opening it, she found the Doctor's valentines with the following sentiments appropriately attached.
I
By Rose-pose made, by March adorned,
'T is not a Heart that one should scorn:
For use each day, the whole year through,
Where find a Valentine so true? ”

“ Well, well! That’s the fortieth valentine I’ve sent Ellen. I sent the first, I remember, when I was a three-year-old, in kilts, and she a baby in little white dresses and blue shoes. Ha, hum! Such is life! Here we are, both middle-aged people, though blest if I feel so! If she’d only answered that twentieth one, I might not have been sending the fortieth. I wonder—— (He toys with letter.)
Mrs. Winston (looking in) . Oh, here you are, Bertram. You’re wanted on the ’phone.
Uncle B. (rising) . I’ll be right there.
[7]
(He hurries out, and Bobby hurries in, and picks up the dropped letter.) ”

“ I’ll bet he’s the one! Mean old thing, to bring tears to the eyes of my little great-auntie after all these years! (Puts valentines hack in drawer, and shuts it rather vigorously, letting one drop, unnoticed, to the floor.) Men and boys are queer creatures, anyhow. I’m glad I’m a girl! And I’m glad I live now, instead of forty years ago. Why, I got more valentines, I do believe, to-day, than Aunt Polly has in all her life. Why, I dropped one! (Picks it up.) Amos was a little fellow when he sent this, I guess. ”