The handing of the ring from the minister to some one of the persons present has a reason broader than that which Larpent is pleased to assign, as we consider we have shown. We confirm it by saying, that the Jewish law requires, at the time of marriage, that a valuable consideration should pass from the bridegroom to the bride. This consideration is represented by the ring, which, therefore, must not be of less value than the minimum fixed by the law. And as this value has to be ascertained and attested, which cannot be done by less than two witnesses, the officiating minister or Rabbi, after making the inquiries required by law, examines the ring and hands it to the presiding officer of the synagogue, (a layman, who is supposed to know more about the value of gold or silver than a Rabbi,) who also examines and hands it back to the minister; and these two, the minister and the officer of the synagogue, then witness that the article is of that value which the law requires. We say this advisedly; and can add as positively that the ring is never handed round to third persons.
At a marriage to which the author was invited—a marriage between a Jewish merchant and the amiable daughter of a learned Rabbi in New-York—the usual course was not departed from. The father of the bride, who officiated, received the ring from the bridegroom, ascertained that it was the young man’s own property lawfully acquired, examined and then delivered it to the president of the synagogue. He, also, examined and handed the ring back to the minister, who, finally, performed the ceremony.
§ 12. Some married women are so rigidly superstitious or firm that they will not draw off their wedding-ring to wash or at any other time: extending the expression “till death do us part” even to the ring.[353]
And there is a superstition connected with the wear of the ring, worked into this proverb:
“As your wedding-ring wears,
Your cares will wear away.”
§ 13. Gold-wire rings of three twisted wires were given away at weddings; and Anthony Wood relates of Edward Kelly, a “famous philosopher” in Queen Elizabeth’s days, that “Kelly, who was openly profuse beyond the modest limits of a sober philosopher, did give away in gold-wire rings (or rings twisted with three gold wires) at the marriage of one of his maid servants, to the value of £4,000.”[354]
§ 14. A gold ring has been discovered in Rome, which has the subject of Cupid and Psyche cut into the metal.[355] We give an enlarged illustration of it. Psyche is figured more ethereally than she generally appears upon gems. The lower portion of this emanation seems to partake of the delicate plumage of the butterfly; and the whole prettily illustrates the soul. There is a strong contrast between these figures; and we are inclined to think the designer intended it. While Psyche is all that we have said, the other form comes up to Colman’s theatrical Cupid: