Herrick, in his “Hesperides,” has the following lines:
“THE JIMMAL RING OR TRUE-LOVE KNOT.
“Thou sent’st to me a true-love knot; but I
Return’d a ring of jimmals, to imply
Thy love had one knot, mine a triple-tye.”
A singular silver gimmal ring was found in Dorset, England; the legend Ave Maria is partly inscribed on each moiety and legible only when they are united.[307]
A beautiful enamelled ring of this kind which belonged to Sir Thomas Gresham, is extant.[308] It opens horizontally, thus forming two rings, which are, nevertheless, linked together and respectively inscribed on the inner side with a Scripture posy: QUOD. DEVS. CONJVNXIT (what God did join) is engraved on one half and HOMO NON SEPARAT, (let not man separate), on the other. The ring is beautifully enamelled. One of the portions is set with a diamond and the other with a ruby; and corresponding with them, in a cavity inside the ring, are or rather were within the last twenty years two minute figures or genii. The workmanship is admirable and probably Italian.
The reader who may be curious to know more about the gimmal ring, and the probable derivation of the word Gimmal, is referred to a learned and interesting article by Robert Smith, Esq., in the London Archæologia, vol. xii. p. 7.
It is possible that Shakspeare was thinking of gimmal rings, some of which had engraven on them a hand with a heart in it, when (in the Tempest) he makes Ferdinand say to Miranda “Here’s my hand” and she answers “And mine, with my heart in it.”