crants

plural crantses

1. obsoleteA garland carried before the bier of a maiden and subsequently hung over the grave.

   Why forsooth? because the filthy queane weares a craunce, and is a French woman forsooth.

   1592, Robert Greene, A quip for an upstart courtier

   4 more examples

   Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants, / Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home / Of bell and burial.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]

   Dr. Furnivall has lately seen in the aisle of Ashford Church, near Bakewell, in Derbyshire, five of the "virgin crantses," or "maidens' garlands," which the priests allowed Ophelia's corpse — with other rites — by "great command."

   1888, The Academy, volume 34, page 134

   1888 August 29, unknown author, quoted in 1983, William Benzie, Dr. F. J. Furnivall: Victorian scholar adventurer, page 181, In the Derby Mercury for August 29, 1888, a correspondent writes, "Henceforth, Ashford Church with its paper garlands or crantses should be visited by all Shakespeare students far and near."

   In the parish church at Matlock six exceptionally well-preserved garlands, known locally as crantses, hang in a glass-fronted cupboard in the south-west porch.

   1966, Roy Christian, The Country Life Book of Old English Customs, page 56