[‘ A song or poem written in celebration of a (forthcoming) wedding.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˌprəʊθəˈleɪmɪəm/, U.S. /ˌproʊθəˈleɪmiəm/
Forms: 15– *prothalamion*, 17 19– *prothalamium*.
Etymology: < pro- prefix2 + -thalamion (in epithalamion, variant of epithalamium n.).
Apparently coined by Spenser (see quot. 15971), to denote a piece written in celebration of a forthcoming wedding. In subsequent use the sense is apparently sometimes extended to denote any piece written in celebration of a wedding.
A song or poem written in celebration of a (forthcoming) wedding.
1597 Spenser (title) Prothalamion, or a Spousall Verse.
1597 M. Drayton /Englands Heroicall Epist./ f. 71v, When Prothalamions praysd that happy day, wherein great Dudley match’d with noble Gray.
1612 M. Drayton /Poly-olbion/ xv. Argt. 237 At Oxford all the Muses meet her, And with a Prothalamion greet her.
1627 M. Drayton /Miseries Queene Margarite/ in /Battaile Agincourt/ 69 Poets write Prothalamions in their praise, Untill mens eares were cloyd with the report.
1745 J. Whaley /Coll. Poems & Transl./ 52 (title) Prothalamium.
/a/1821 Keats /Cap & Bells/ lxxxvii, in R. M. Milnes /Life, Lett. & Literary Remains Keats/ (1848) II. 250 And close into her face, with rhyming clack, Began a Prothalamion.
/a/1876 M. Collins /Sel. Wks./ (1886) 200 Soon shall you hear the bridal prothalamion That hints sweet marvels of the happy marriage-bed.
1939 /Antiquity/ *8* 318 A prothalamium song at the marriage of a girl.
1977 H. T. Moore /Priest of Love/ ii. 154 The Look! poems..are essentially a prothalamion—a great marriage poem.
1994 P. Morley /As though Life Mattered/ v. 59 When Leo married Miriam Carpin, Klein wrote a prothalamium for the pair.