customs, and superstitions of
most nations. Thus, rings have been supposed "to protect from evil
fascinations of every kind, against the evil eye, the influence of
demons, and dangers of every possible character: though it was not
simply in the rings themselves that the supposed virtues existed, but in
the materials of which they were composed--in some particular precious
stones that were set in them as charms or talismans, in some device or
inscription on the stone, or some magical letters engraved on the
circumference of the ring."[753] Rings, too, in days gone by, had a
symbolical importance. Thus, it was anciently the custom for every
monarch to have a ring, the temporary possession of which invested the
holder with the same authority as the owner himself could exercise.
Thus, in "Henry VIII." (v. 1), we have the king's ring given to Cranmer,
and presented by him (sc. 2), as a security against the machinations of
Gardiner and others of the council, who were plotting to destroy him.
Thus the king says:

"If entreaties
Will render you no remedy, this ring
Deliver them, and your appeal to us
There make before them."

[753] Jones's "Finger-Ring Lore," 1877, p. 91.

This custom, too, was not confined to royalty, for in "Richard II." (ii.
2), the Duke of York gives this order to his servant:

"Sirrah, get thee to Plashy, to my sister Gloster;
Bid her send me presently a thousand pound:--
Hold, take my ring."

There is an interesting relic of the same custom still kept up at
Winchester College.[754] When the captain of the school petitions the
head-master for a holiday, and obtains it, he receives from him a ring,
in token of the indulgence granted, which he wears during the holiday,
and returns to the head-master when it is over. The inscription upon the
ring was, formerly, "Potentiam fero, geroque." It is now "Commendat
rarior usus" (Juvenal, "Sat." xi. 208).

[754] Wordsworth's "Shakespeare and the Bible," 1880, p. 283.

_Token Rings_ date from very early times. Edward I., in 1297, presented
Margaret, his fourth daughter, with a golden pyx, in which he deposited
a ring, as a token of his unfailing love.

In "Richard III." (i. 2) when Gloster brings his hasty wooing to a
conclusion, he gives the Lady Anne a ring, saying:

"Look, how my ring encompasseth thy finger,
Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart;
Wear both of them, for both of