Chapter I: Preface

The history of finger-rings is more abundant than the poetry, which is chiefly connected with the ceremonies and observances in which they figure. What this history is Mr. Edwards has indicated in the gossipy pages which follow, and which contain a world of curious information. Interesting in themselves, they are valuable for their references, which enable the reader to verify the statements of Mr. Edwards, and to pursue his line of study farther than he has chosen to do. He will find many particulars in regard to rings of all sorts, among the different people by whom they have been worn, in ancient and modern times, and of the important part they have played in the history of the world. He will also find many allusions to them in the poets, but not so many poems of which they were the inspiration as he might have expected, for the simple reason that such poems do not exist.

“The small orbit of the wedding-ring,”

as a nameless old poet satirically calls it, has seldom proved large enough for genius to revolve in. Mr. Edwards quotes but one marriage poem,

“Thee, Mary, with this ring I wed,”

which he fails to trace to its author, the Rev. Samuel Bishop, who has written nothing else that is worth remembering. I am happy to restore it to him, and to quote a second poem, which is rather more elegant and less familiar, and which is put down to the credit of William Pattison, of whom I know nothing. I take it from Dr. Palmer’s “Poetry of Courtship and Compliment” (1868), an admirable collection of amorous verse.

TO HER RING.

Blest ornament! how happy is thy snare,
To bind the snowy finger of my fair!
O, could I learn thy nice concise art,
Now, as thou bind’st her fingers, bind her heart.

Not Eastern diadems like thee can shine,
Fed from her brighter eyes with beams divine;
Nor can their mightiest monarch’s power command
So large an empire as my charmer’s hand.

O, could thy form thy fond admirer wear,
Thy very likeness should in all appear;
My endless love thy endless love should show,
And my heart flaming, for thy diamond glow.

R. H. S.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER ONE.

1. Interest and Importance attaching to Rings; Shakspeare’s Ring;
Earl Godwin. 2. Words _symbolum_ and _ungulus_. 3. Ring-money. 4.
Rings in Mythology; Theseus; Prometheus, Inventor of the First
Ring. 5. Seals from the Scarabæus. 6. Rings in Greek Urns. 7. Judah
and Tamar; Alexander. 8. Ring a Symbol of Fidelity, Eternity and of
the Deity. 9. Roman Rings. 10. Rings in German Caverns. 11. Rings
of the Gauls and Britons. 12. Anglo-Saxon Workers in Metal. 13.
Ladies’ Seal-rings. 14. Substance, Forms and Size of Rings; Number,
and on what fingers worn; Pearls; Carbuncle; Death’s-head Rings.
15. Law of Rings. 16. Order of the Ring. 17. Rings found in all
places. 18. Persian Signets. 19. Value of ancient Rings. 20. Love’s
Telegraph, and Name-rings; Polish Birth-day Gifts. 21. Rings in
Heraldry. 22. Rings in Fish. 23. Riddle. 24. Ring misapplied. 25.
Horace Walpole’s Poesy on a Ring. 9

CHAPTER TWO.

RINGS CONNECTED WITH POWER.

1. The Ring an Emblem of Power; Pharaoh; Quintus Curtius; Antiochus
Epiphanes; Augustus; King of Persia; Egypt under the Ptolemies;
Roman Senators; the Forefinger. 2. Rings used in Coronations;
Edward the Second; Mother of Henry VIII.; Queen Elizabeth; Charles
II.; Coronation Rings; Canute; Sebert; Henry II.; Childeric;
Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror. 3. King withdrawing a
Proceeding from the Council by the use of a Ring. 4. The Doge of
Venice marrying the Adriatic. 5. The Ring of Office of the Doge. 6.
_The Fisherman’s Ring._ 7. Papal Ring of Pius II. 8. Investiture
of Archbishops and Bishops by delivery of a Ring; Cardinal’s Ring;
Extension of the two Forefingers and Thumb. 9. Serjeant’s Ring. 10.
Arabian Princesses. 11. Roman Knights. 12. Alderman’s Thumb Ring. 65