Posies from Wedding Rings.
Hamlet.—Is this a prologue, or a posy of a ring?
The following posies were transcribed by an indefatigable collector, from old wedding rings, chiefly of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The orthography is, in most cases, altered:—
Death never parts
Such loving hearts.
In thee, my choice,
I do rejoice. 1677.
A heart content
Need ne'er repent.
All I refuse,
And thee I choose.
In thee, dear wife,
I find new life.
This ring doth bind
Body and mind.
Joy day and night
Be our delight.
Endless as this,
Shall be our bliss. 1719.
God alone
Made us two one.
I change the life
Of maid to wife.
No gift can show
The love I owe.
In love abide,
Till death divide.
Private Expenses of Charles II.
Malone, the well-known editor of Shakespeare, possessed a curious volume—an account of the privy expenses of Charles II., kept by Baptist May. A few extracts from Malone's transcripts are here subjoined:—
| £ | s. | d. | |
| My Lord St. Alban's bill, | 1,746 | 18 | 11 |
| Lady Castlemaine's debts, | 1,116 | 1 | 0 |
| For grinding cocoanuts, | 5 | 8 | 0 |
| Paid Lady C, play-money, | 300 | 0 | 0 |
| For a band of music, | 50 | 0 | 0 |
| For a receipt for chocolate | 227 | 0 | 0 |
| Lady C, play-money, | 300 | 0 | 0 |
| Mr. Knight, for bleeding the king, | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Mr. Price, for milking the asses, | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Lady C, play-money, | 300 | 0 | 0 |
| To one that showed tumbler's tricks, | 5 | 7 | 6 |
| For weighing the King, | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| The Queen's allowance, | 1,250 | 0 | 0 |
| Lost by the King at play on twelfth-night, | 220 | 0 | 0 |
| Nell Gwyn, | 100 | 0 | 0 |
| For 3,685 ribbons for healing, | 107 | 10 | 4 |
| Lord Landerdale, for ballads, | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Paid what was borrowed for the Countess of Castlemaine, | 1,650 | 0 | 0 |