Shakespeare makes frequent reference to the marriage custom of giving a dowry to the bride, in his various plays. Thus, in “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” (Act II., Scene I), Boyet, in speaking to the Princess, refers to Aquitaine as “a dowry for a queen;” King John tells Phillip of France, that if his son shall love his daughter, “Her dowry shall weigh equal with a queen.” (King John, Act II., Scene I.) Petruchio tells Katherine, in “Taming of the Shrew”: “_Pet._ Your father hath consented that you shall be my wife; your dowry ’greed on; and will you, nil you, I will marry you.” (Act II., Scene I.) Gloster, in 1’ Henry VI., speaking of the proffer of his daughter to the King, by the Earl of Armagnac, refers to the “large and sumptuous dowry.” (Act V., Scene I.) And the poor Lear, is made to ask the duke of Burgundy, in discarding his daughter, Cordelia: “What, in the least, will you require in present dower with her?” (Act I., Scene I.) White’s “Law in Shakespeare,” Sec. 66, pp. 95, 97. [72] Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. I., p. 25. [73] Genesis, XXIV., 22, 53. [74] Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. II., p. 131. [75] _Ante idem._ 130. [76] _Ante idem._ 133. [77] During the reign of George I. and George II., the wedding ring was placed on the usual finger at marriage and then transferred to the thumb. Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. II., p. 134. [78] _Ante idem._ p. 135. [79] Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. I., p. 94. The Quakers and Mormons reject the wedding ring, because of its heathenish origin. Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. II., p. 135. The wedding rings of St. Louis, of France; of Margaret, daughter of the Earl of Warwick; of the wife of Duke John, of Sweden; of Martin Luther and Catherine Von Bora, his wife; the ring given by Henry VIII. to Anne of Cleves; that given by Phillip, to Queen Mary, and by Lord Darnley, to Mary, Queen of Scots, are described in Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. II., pp. 145, 149. Chaucer’s reference to the wedding ring, in his “Troilus and Cressida”; Shakespeare’s mention of the gemmal ring, in “Midsummer’s Night’s Dream”; and his use of the ring in “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” “Twelfth Night” and “Merchant of Venice,” with many traditions of the wedding ring, will be found interestingly presented in Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. II., pp. 129, 149. The custom of placing the ring upon the fourth finger of the left hand, according to the opinion of a writer in the British Apollo, in 1708, dates from the discovery of the convenience of the left hand for such ornament because less employed than the right and the fourth finger, less than others, was needed in ordinary use. See Knowlton’s “Origin of Wedding Superstitions;” Finck’s “Primitive Love and Love Stories.” [80] Wood’s “Wedding Day in All Ages,” vol. I., pp. 94, 95. [81] _Ante idem._, vol. I., pp. 128, 133, 156; vol. II., pp. 44, 224. [82] Deuteronomy, XXV., 5, 10. [83] Ruth, IV., 7, 8.