POSIES FROM WEDDING-RINGS.
Portia. A quarrel, ho, already! What’s the matter?
Gratiano. About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring
That she did give me: whose posy was
For all the world like cutler’s poetry
Upon a knife:[[32]] Love me, and leave me not.—
Merchant of Venice, Act V.
Hamlet. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?—
Hamlet, Act III. sc. 2.
Jacques. You are full of pretty answers: have you not been acquainted with goldsmiths’ wives, and conned them out of rings?—
As You Like It, Act III. sc. 2.
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.
Love and respect
I do expect.
No gift can show
The love I owe.
Let him never take a wife
That will not love her as his life.
In loving thee
I love myself.
A heart content
Can ne’er repent.
In God and thee
Shall my joy be.
Love thy chaste wife
Beyond thy life. 1681.
Love and pray
Night and day.
Great joy in thee
Continually.
My fond delight
By day and night.
Pray to love;
Love to pray. 1647.
In thee, my choice,
I do rejoice. 1677.
Body and mind
In thee I find.
Dear wife, thy rod
Doth lead to God.
God alone
Made us two one.
Eternally
My love shall be.
All I refuse,
And thee I choose.
Worship is due
To God and you.
Love and live happy. 1689.
Joy day and night
Be our delight.
Divinely knit by Grace are we;
Late two, now one; the pledge here see. 1657.
Endless my love
As this shall prove.
Avoid all strife
’Twixt man and wife.
Joyful love
This ring doth prove.
In thee, dear wife,
I find new life.
Of rapturous joy
I am the toy.
In thee I prove
The joy of love.
In loving wife
Spend all thy life. 1697.
In love abide
Till death divide.
In unity
Let’s live and die.
Happy in thee
Hath God made me.
Silence ends strife
With man and wife.
None can prevent
The Lord’s intent.
God did decree
Our unity.
I kiss the rod
From thee and God.
In love and joy
Be our employ.
Live and love;
Love and live.
God above
Continue our love.
True love will ne’er forget.
Faithful ever,
Deceitful never.
As gold is pure,
So love is sure.
Love, I like thee,
Sweet, requite me.
God sent her me,
My wife to be.
Live and die
In constancy.
My beloved is mine,
And I am hers.
Within my breast
Thy heart doth rest.
God above
Increase our love.
Be true to me
That gives it thee.
Both heart and hand
At your command.
My heart you have,
And yours I crave.
Christ and thee
My comfort be.
As God decreed,
So we agreed.
No force can move
Affixed love.
For a kiss
Take this.
The want of thee
Is grief to me.
I fancy none
But thee alone.
One word for all,
I love and shall.
Your sight,
My delight.
God’s blessing be
On thee and me.
I will be yours
While breath endures.
Love is sure
Where faith is pure.
Thy friend am I,
An so will die.
God’s appointment
Is my contentment.
Knit in one
By Christ alone.
My dearest Betty
Is good and pretty.
Sweetheart, I pray
Do not say nay.
Parting is pain
While love doth remain.
Hurt not that heart
Whose joy thou art.
Thine eyes so bright
Are my delight.
Take hand and heart,
I’ll ne’er depart.
If you consent,
You’ll not repent.
’Tis in your will
To save or kill.
As long as life,
Your loving wife.
If you deny,
Then sure I die.
Thy friend am I,
And so will die.
Let me in thee
Most happy be.
God hath sent
My heart’s content.
You and I
Will lovers die.
Thy consent
Is my content.
I wish to thee
All joy may be.
In thee my love
All joy I prove.
Beyond this life
Love me, dear wife.
Love and joy
Can never cloy.
The pledge I prove
Of mutual love.
I love the rod
And thee and God.
Desire, like fire,
Doth still inspire.
My heart and I,
Until I die.
This ring doth bind
Body and mind.
Endless as this
Shall be our bliss.—Thos. Bliss. 1719.
I do rejoice
In thee my choice.
Love him in heart,
Whose joy thou art.
I change the life
Of maid to wife.
Endless my love
For thee shall prove.
Not Two, but One.
Till life be gone.
Numbers, vi. 24, 25, 26.
In its circular continuity, the ring was accepted as a type of eternity, and, hence, the stability of affection.
Constancy and Heaven are round,
And in this the Emblem’s found.
This is love, and worth commending,
Still beginning, never ending.
Or, as Herrick says,—
And as this round
Is nowhere found
To flaw or else to sever,
So let our love
As endless prove,
And pure as gold forever.