Maybe someone else has said this (I'm catching up with e-mail and haven't
read all the postings), but the funniest todo over a ring, for my money,
is the amazing--and hilarious--narrative in Thomas Whythorne's
autobiography about his pursuit of a widow richly left in London (it's in
a modern edition and the ring stuff is in Betty Travitsky's and my
anthology *Female and Male Voices*). She gives him gold for a ring, he
thinks maybe that means she will marry him, but things rapidly go
downhill. My favorite rings (maybe somebody has said this, too) are the
engagement ring Amoretti (not quite a full circle, but gesturing at one)
and the wedding ring Epithalamion (a double ring of day and year). One
could, I suppose, search for "engagement ring" on EEBO. Anne P.
> David Cressy, in his monograph _Birth, Marriage, and Death_, notes that
> rings were commonly given as courtship presents, and that "further gifts,
> most commonly a ring, changed hands when the couple was contracted or
> betrothed" (263). He cites the intriguing-sounding _Loves garland. Or
> posies
> for rings, hand-kerchers, and gloves; and such pretty tokens that lovers
> send their loves_ (1624). He also cites church court records from York and
> Durham from 1570s to the 1620s as providing "plentiful" evidence for the
> ingredients of espousal ceremonies, including "the ritual exchange of
> betrothal rings" (273).
>
> Sara Mendelson and Patricia Crawford, _Women in Early Modern England_,
> also
> cite evidence for the exchange of a "gold or gilded" betrothal ring as
> part
> of a handfasting ceremony (114), with the young woman accepting the ring
> from the man.
>
> Joseph Black
> Department of English
> Bartlett Hall 477
> University of Massachusetts
> Amherst, MA 01003
> (413) 545-5517
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "William Oram" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2005 6:25 PM
> Subject: Engagement and Marriage Rings
>
>
>> I'm teaching the Merchant of Venice now and got asked about the history
>> of engagement rings. Were they given in the Renaissance? If so, was it
>> usual for the man to give them to the woman? Or is thinking about the
>> ring Portia gives Bassanio as something like a modern engagement ring
>> simply distorting? (For that matter, since the marriage takes place
>> shortly after this scene, should we see it as a marriage ring instead? )
>> Does anyone know where I can start?
>> Bill Oram
>>
>
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