Arts and crafts in the Middle Ages : $b a description of mediaeval workmanship in several of the departments of applied art, together with some account of special artisans in the early RenaissanceAddison, Julia de Wolf
History
Arts and crafts in the Middle Ages : $b a description of mediaeval workmanship in several of the departments of applied art, together with some account of special artisans in the early Renaissance
Addison, Julia de Wolf
Arts and crafts movement; Decoration and ornament, Medieval; Decorative arts -- History; Illumination of books and manuscripts
In an old will of 1529, a ring was left as a bequest to a relative,
described as "a table diamond set with black aniell, meate for my
little finger."
The accompanying illustration represents a Hebrew ring, surmounted
by a little mosque, and having the inscription "Mazul Toub" (God
be with you, or Good luck to you).
It was the custom in Elizabethan times to wear "posie rings" (or
poesie rings) in which inscriptions were cut, such as, "Let likinge
Laste," "Remember the ? that is in pain," or, "God saw fit this
knot to knit," and the like. These posie rings are so called
because of the little poetical sentiments associated with them.
They were often used as engagement rings, and sometimes as wedding
rings. In an old Saxon ring is the inscription, "Eanred made me and
Ethred owns me." One of the mottoes in an old ring is pathetic;
evidently it was worn by an invalid, who was trying to be patient,
"Quant Dieu Plera melior sera." (When it shall please God, I shall
be better.) And in a small ring set with a tiny diamond, "This
sparke shall grow." An agreeable and favourite "posie" was
"The love is true
That I O U."
A motto in a ring owned by Lady Cathcart was inscribed on the occasion
of her fourth marriage; with laudable ambition, she observes,
"If I survive,
I will have five."
It is to these "posie rings" that Shakespeare has reference when
he makes Jaques say to Orlando: "You are full of pretty answers:
have you not been acquainted with goldsmiths' wives, and conned
them out of rings?"
In the Isle of Man there was once a law that any girl who had been
wronged by a man had the right to redress herself in one of three
ways: she was given a sword, a rope and a ring, and she could decide
whether she would behead him, hang him, or marry him. Tradition
states that the ring was almost invariably the weapon chosen by
the lady.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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