This wedding portrait was made soon after Rossetti's marriage to Elizabeth Eleanor "Lizzie" Siddal, in May 1860 and is an image of the final, tragic stage of that great love affair
The title is taken from Shakespeare's AS You Like It, Act III, when Corin speaks of Silvius' unrequired love for Phebe as a "pageant play'd Between the pale complexion of true love And the red glow of scorn and proud disdain."
Showing a procession of richly-dressed people leaving a wedding ceremony, oblivious of the figure of Love, an "uninvited guest" at a marriage of rank, wealth and convenience. Note the nettles and prickles growing by the path from the church.