Editing Book of Common Prayer (section)

==Literary influence==

Along with the [[King James Version]] of the Bible and the works of [[Shakespeare]], the ''Book of Common Prayer'' has been one of the major influences on modern English parlance. As it has been in regular use for centuries, many phrases from its services have passed into everyday English, either as deliberate quotations or as unconscious borrowings. They have often been used metaphorically in non-religious contexts, and authors have used phrases from the prayer book as titles for their books.
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 |title = The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony
 |quote = … Therefore if any man can shew any just cause, why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now '''speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace''' …
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{{Quote box
 |title = The Second Sunday in Advent – The Collect
 |quote = Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, '''read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest''' them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
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}}
Some examples of well-known phrases from the ''Book of Common Prayer'' are:
*"Speak now or forever hold your peace" from the [[marriage]] [[liturgy]].
*"Till death us do part", from the marriage liturgy.{{efn|The phrase "till death us do part" ("till death us depart" before 1662) has been changed to "till death do us part" in some more recent prayer books, such as the 1962 Canadian Book of Common Prayer.}}<ref>[[Diarmaid MacCulloch]] notes in his book ''[[A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years]]'' (London/New York: Penguin Books, 2010) in footnote 40 on page 631/1065: "'Death us do part' was 'death us depart', when [[Thomas Cranmer|Cranmer]] wrote it, but the phrase has effortlessly survived the changing meaning of 'depart'.</ref>
*"Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust" from the [[funeral]] service.
*"In the midst of life, we are in death" from the committal in the service for the [[funeral|burial of the dead]] (first rite).
*"From all the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil" from the [[litany]].
*"Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" from the [[collect]] for the second Sunday of [[Advent]].
*"Evil liver" from the rubrics for Holy Communion.
*"All sorts and conditions of men" from the Order for Morning Prayer.
*"[[Peace for our time|Peace in our time]]" from Morning Prayer, Versicles.
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References and allusions to Prayer Book services in the works of Shakespeare were tracked down and identified by Richmond Noble.{{sfn|Noble|1935| p = 82}} Derision of the Prayer Book or its contents "in any interludes, plays, songs, rhymes, or by other open words" was a criminal offence under the 1559 [[Act of Uniformity 1559|Act of Uniformity]], and consequently Shakespeare avoids too direct reference; but Noble particularly identifies the reading of the Psalter according to the [[Great Bible]] version specified in the Prayer Book, as the biblical book generating the largest number of [[Biblical allusions in Shakespeare|Biblical references]] in Shakespeare's plays. Noble found a total of 157 allusions to the Psalms in the plays of the [[First Folio]], relating to 62 separate Psalms&nbsp;– all, save one, of which he linked to the version in the Psalter, rather than those in the [[Geneva Bible]] or [[Bishops' Bible]]. In addition, there are a small number of direct allusions to liturgical texts in the Prayer Book; e.g. [[Henry VIII (play)|''Henry VIII'']] 3:2 where Wolsey states "Vain Pomp and Glory of this World, I hate ye!", a clear reference to the rite of Public Baptism; where the Godparents are asked "Doest thou forsake the vaine pompe and glory of the worlde..?"

As novelist [[P. D. James]] observed, "We can recognize the Prayer Book's cadences in the works of [[Isaac Walton]] and [[John Bunyan]], in the majestic phrases of [[John Milton]], [[Sir Thomas Browne]] and [[Edward Gibbon]]. We can see its echo in the works of such very different writers as [[Daniel Defoe]], [[William Makepeace Thackeray|Thackeray]], the [[Brontë family|Brontës]], [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Coleridge]], [[T. S. Eliot]] and even [[Dorothy L. Sayers]]."{{sfn|James|2011|p=48}} James herself used phrases from the ''Book of Common Prayer'' and made them into best-selling titles – ''[[Devices and Desires]]'' and ''[[The Children of Men]]'' – while [[Alfonso Cuarón]]'s 2006 film ''[[Children of Men]]'' placed the phrase onto cinema marquees worldwide.