“Gloster. Vouchsafe to wear this ring.
Anne. To take, is not to give.
Gloster. Look, how my ring encompasseth thy finger,
Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart:
Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.”
In “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (ii. 2) we read:
“Julia. Keep this remembrance for thy Julia’s sake (giving a ring).
Proteus. Why, then, we’ll make exchange: here, take you this.
Julia. And seal the bargain with a holy kiss.”
A joint, or gimmal, ring was anciently a common token among lovers, an allusion to which is made by Emilia, in “Othello” (iv. 3): “I would not do such a thing for a joint-ring.” Their nature will be best understood by a passage in Dryden’s “Don Sebastian” (1690, act v.):
“A curious artist wrought them,
With joints so close, as not to be perceiv’d;
Yet are they both each other’s counterpart,
... and in the midst,
A heart, divided in two halves, was plac’d.”
They were generally made of two or three hoops, so chased and engraved that, when fastened together by a single rivet, the whole three formed one design, the usual device being a hand. When an engagement was contracted, the ring was taken apart, each spouse taking a division, and the third one being presented to the principal witness of the contract.[712] Hence such a ring was known as a “Sponsalium Annulis,” to which Herrick thus refers: