The gimmal ring appears in common language to have been called a joint-ring. There is a passage relating to it in Dryden’s “Don Sebastian.”
“A curious artist wrought ’em,
With joynts so close as not to be perceiv’d;
Yet are they both each other’s counterpart,
(Her part had Juan inscrib’d, and his had Zayda.
You know those names were theirs:) and, in the midst,
A heart divided in two halves was plac’d.
Now if the rivets of those rings, inclos’d,
Fit not each other, I have forg’d this lye:
But if they join, you must for ever part.”
According to other passages in this play one of these rings was worn by Sebastian’s father: the other by Almeyda’s mother, as pledges of love. Sebastian pulls off his, which had been put on his finger by his dying father: Almeyda does the same with hers, which had been given her by her mother at parting: and Alvarez unscrews both the rings, and fits one half to the other.
There is a beautiful allusion to the emblematical properties of the wedding ring in the following poem:—
TO S—— D——, WITH A RING.
Emblem of happiness, not bought, nor sold,
Accept this modest ring of virgin gold.
Love in the small, but perfect, circle, trace,
And duty, in its soft, though strict embrace.
Plain, precious, pure, as best becomes the wife;
Yet firm to bear the frequent rubs of life.
Connubial love disdains a fragile toy,
Which rust can tarnish, or a touch destroy;
Nor much admires what courts the gen’ral gaze,
The dazzling diamond’s meretricious blaze,
That hides, with glare, the anguish of a heart
By nature hard, tho’ polish’d bright by art.
More to thy taste the ornament that shows
Domestic bliss, and, without glaring, glows.
Whose gentle pressure serves to keep the mind
To all correct, to one discreetly kind.
Of simple elegance th’ unconscious charm,
The holy amulet to keep from harm;
To guard at once and consecrate the shrine,
Take this dear pledge—It makes and keeps thee mine.[244]
[242] Academy of Armory, b. iii. c. 2. p. 20.