The history of finger-rings is more abundant than the poetry, which
is chiefly connected with the ceremonies and observances in which
they figure. What this history is Mr. Edwards has indicated in the
gossipy pages which follow, and which contain a world of curious
information. Interesting in themselves, they are valuable for their
references, which enable the reader to verify the statements of Mr.
Edwards, and to pursue his line of study farther than he has chosen
to do. He will find many particulars in regard to rings of all sorts,
among the different people by whom they have been worn, in ancient
and modern times, and of the important part they have played in the
history of the world. He will also find many allusions to them in the
poets, but not so many poems of which they were the inspiration as
he might have expected, for the simple reason that such poems do not
exist.
“The small orbit of the wedding-ring,”
as a nameless old poet satirically calls it, has seldom proved large
enough for genius to revolve in. Mr. Edwards quotes but one marriage
poem,
“Thee, Mary, with this ring I wed,”
which he fails to trace to its author, the Rev. Samuel Bishop, who
has written nothing else that is worth remembering. I am happy to
restore it to him, and to quote a second poem, which is rather more
elegant and less familiar, and which is put down to the credit of
William Pattison, of whom I know nothing. I take it from Dr. Palmer’s
“Poetry of Courtship and Compliment” (1868), an admirable collection
of amorous verse.