In Burgon’s life of Sir Thomas Gresham, the merchant prince of Queen Elizabeth’s time and founder of the Royal Exchange, we are shown his wedding ring. This is a gimmal ring composed of two hoops, one bearing the inscription “Quod Deus conjunxit” (What God hath joined together) and the other: “Homo non separet” (Let not man put asunder).[381] The two hoops are set with a red and a white stone, respectively. A curious development of the gimmal-ring was the so-called “puzzle-ring” consisting of pieces of gold wire ingeniously bent and intertwined so that they appeared to form a single indivisible ring, although by a certain clever twist they could easily be separated into several independent hoops. This type was derived from the East. On a gimmal ring belonging to the first half of the fifteenth century, in the Londesborough Collection, is an engraved head of Lucretia; at the back appear two hands clasped. This type seems to have been common in Shakespeare’s time, for in Twelfth Night (Act II, sc. 5), Malvolio exclaims, after examining the seal on a letter: “By your leave, wax. Soft!--and the impressure her Lucrece with which she uses to seal.”[382] The choice of this image for a betrothal ring must have been intended either as a tribute to the lady’s chastity, or else as a kind of amulet to protect her from attacks on her virtue. [Illustration: Gimmal ring, open Edward’s “History and Poetry of Finger Rings”] [Illustration: Silver betrothal ring; two views. On the shoulder appears the legend: “God Help.” English, Fifteenth Century British Museum] [Illustration: Gold puzzle rings. 1, three hoops, cruciform bezel: 2, with four hoops. Two views of each, closed and open. Seventeenth Century British Museum] [Illustration: Curious old posy ring. The motto is to be read: Our _hands_ and _hearts_ with one consent, Hath tied this _knot_ till _death_ prevent British Museum] [Illustration: Wedding rings with “posies.” English, Seventeenth Century Fairholt’s “Rambles of an Artist”] [Illustration: Two Gimmal rings, one double, the other triple. Betrothal or wedding rings Fairholt’s “Rambles of an Artist”]