• historical

“Love and marriage, love and marriage – go together like a horse and carriage.” So run the lyrics of a popular song of 1955. Nearly 60 years later, most of us would still agree. Though many loving couples take years to tie the knot, the common belief is that love which does not eventually result in marriage is somehow unfulfilled, and that conversely marriage without love is probably doomed.

But it was not always thus. Up until quite recently in Western society, if love and marriage happened to coincide that might be the best of all possible worlds. But the norm was often to …