“A curious artist wrought ’em-- With joints so close as not to be perceived; Yet are they both each other’s counterparts! (Her part had Juan inscribed; and his had Laydor; You know those names were theirs;) and in the midst A heart divided in two-halfs was placed. Now if the rivets of those rings, inclosed, Fit not each other, I have forged this lie, But if they join, you must for ever part.”
Gimmal rings, though originally double, were, by a further refinement, made triple and even more complicated, yet the name remained unchanged.
Herrick, in his “Hesperides,” has the following lines:
“Thou sent’st to me a true-love knot; but I Return’d a ring of jimmals, to imply Thy love had one knot, mine a triple-tye.”
A singular silver gimmal ring was found in Dorset, England; the legend _Ave Maria_ is partly inscribed on each moiety and legible only when they are united.[307]
A beautiful enamelled ring of this kind which belonged to Sir Thomas Gresham, is extant.[308] It opens horizontally, thus forming two rings, which are, nevertheless, linked together and respectively inscribed on the inner side with a Scripture posy: QUOD. DEVS. CONJVNXIT (_what God did join_) is engraved on one half and HOMO NON SEPARAT, (_let not man separate_), on the other. The ring is beautifully enamelled. One of the portions is set with a diamond and the other with a ruby; and corresponding with them, in a cavity inside the ring, are or rather were within the last twenty years two minute figures or genii. The workmanship is admirable and probably Italian.
The reader who may be curious to know more about the gimmal ring, and the probable derivation of the word _Gimmal_, is referred to a learned and interesting article by Robert Smith, Esq., in the London Archæologia, vol. xii. p. 7.
It is possible that Shakspeare was thinking of gimmal rings, some of which had engraven on them a hand with a heart in it, when (in the _Tempest_) he makes Ferdinand say to Miranda “Here’s my hand” and she answers “And mine, with my heart in it.”
§ 2. Coupled with the love of youth for maiden, we have one of the most simple and perfect of old English sonnets (by Davison):[309]
“If you would _know_ the love which you I bear, Compare it to the ring which your fair hand Shall make MORE precious, when _you_ shall it wear: So _my love’s_ nature you shall understand. Is it of metal _pure_? So endless is _my_ love, Unless you it destroy with your disdain. Doth it the purer grow the more ’tis tried? So doth my love; yet herein they dissent: That whereas gold, the more ’tis purified, By growing less, doth show some part is spent; My love doth grow more pure by your more trying, And yet increaseth in the purifying.”