like that on the above-described Londesborough ring, but without the dagger. In all probability these conventional portraits, though without the dagger, and often of careless workmanship, were accepted at the time as "Lucretias" (cf. the above-quoted passage from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night), that is to say, as emblems of chastity and honour. In some of these niello portraits the place of the hand and dagger is taken by a floral ornament.

Some of the memorial rings of King Charles I of England are of curious workmanship and design. One that belonged to Horace Walpole has the King's head in miniature, with a death's-head between the initials C. R. in front, and the motto, "Prepared be to follow me." Another has a death's-head, with an earthly crown below it, and the word VANITAS (on one side); above the death's-head is a celestial crown with the word GLORIA (on the other side). The device in que-tion is similar to that on the reverse of a memorial medal (described in Part III.) on the King's death, and is illustrated by a passage in the Icon Basilike, commencing: "I shall not want the heavy and envyed crownes of this world." This ring contains the miniature portrait of the King, and is inscribed, "Gloria Angl. Emigravit," with the date (old style) of the King's execution. Two other rings bear the King's portrait and the inscription, "Sic transit gloria mundi." Another gold ring had the King's portrait in a little case (forming the bezel), on the outside of which the four cardinal virtues were represented in enamel; on the inner side of the lid, a skull and crossed bones were enamelled. Besides finger-rings, various little jewels exist commemorating the execution of Charles I. A heart-shaped silver locket in the Southampton Corporation Museum is inscribed: "Prepared bee to follow

mee," with the device of a death's head and the initials C. R.

G. F. Kunz 675 describes a French gold finger-ring, on which a minute gold and enamel coffin is set; on pressing a spring at the side of the ring part of the circlet becomes raised up, disclosing a minute figure of the Emperor Napoleon I executed in enamel. The ring is said to have been worn as a token of attachment to the Napoleonic cause.

Izaak Walton, in a codicil to his will (1683), fixed both the value of his memorial rings and the legend they were to bear. The value was to be 13s. 4d., and on those given to his family the words or mottoes were to be, "Love my Memory, I.W., obiit"; and on one for the Bishop of Winchester, "A mite for a million, I.W., obiit"; and on those for other friends, "A friend's farewell, I.W., obiit." In all he bequeathed about forty rings. "Speaker" W. Lenthall (1591-1662) directed by will that "Oritur non moritur" should be inscribed on fifty gold rings to be given away in his family at his death; and Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639) left to each of the Fellows of Eton College a gold black-enamelled ring with the motto within: Amor unit omnia." At the funeral of Samuel Pepys, the diarist, in 1703, as many as 123 mourning rings were given away, and John Evelyn (the almost equally famous diarist of the same period), on the occasion of the funeral of a son in 1658, had rings distributed, bearing the words: "Dominus abstulit."

66

Shakespeare, in his will (1616), mentioned several persons to whom he bequeathed twenty-six shillings and eightpence a-piece, for them to purchase rings with, doubtless memorial rings like some of those already

675 G. F. Kunz, Rings, 1917, p. 48-after Szendrei, Catalogue de la collection de bagues de Madame de Tarnoczy, Paris, 1889, pp. 142, 143.

referred to. W. Jones quotes the following clause from a will dated 1648: "Also I do will and appoint ten rings of gold to be made of the value of twenty shillings a piece sterling with a death's-head upon some of them." It is probable that jewellers kept memorial rings of this kind in stock ready for inscriptions to be engraved on them as required.

In certain finger-rings with a bezel representing a death's-head (or a death's-head and crossed bones) the bezel has been made hollow and to open like a minute box. Some have supposed that these boxes were made to contain poison (such as arsenic), but it appears extremely unlikely that any genuine secret "poison-ring" should ever have been made in a form likely to attract special attention. It is far more likely that such boxes contained supposed holy relics, or other amulets or "charms," or mementos (such as hair) of a dead relative or friend. G. F. Kunz 676 mentions and figures a German eighteenth century finger-ring, with its bezel formed in the shape of a coffin; on this are skull and cross-bones, and on its sides is the inscription, Hir ist Ruhe ("Here is rest"); when the lid of the coffin is lifted, a compartment is disclosed, containing a minute heart.

Memento mori devices have occasionally been adopted for seals, and the backs of small seals or "signets," just as the shanks and other parts of finger-rings were sometimes chiselled in memento mori fashion ("skulldecorations," &c.).677 I have already alluded to the seal of Erasmus (a man's head, facing, on a boundary stone or

6:6 G. F. Kunz, Rings, 1917, p. 45.

677 One such signet is figured in Paul Lacroix's Arts in the Middle Ages, English edition, by Sir W. Armstrong, p. 135, Fig. 139. See also H. Clifford Smith, Jewellery, Methuen & Co., London, 1908, Plate 40.

terminus, with the inscription: CEDO NVLLI) with which he sealed his last will, dated at Basel, 1536; and I now picture it (Fig. 132) from the figure in Jortin's Life of Erasmus, together with an antique intaglio which belonged to Erasmus. The latter forms part of a finger-ring, and

represents a bearded terminal head, or "Hermes," possibly the Indian Bacchus, in Hellenistic style, without any inscription; from this Erasmus apparently derived his idea of taking a terminal figure as a memento mori

FIG. 133.-Finger-ring with an antique intaglio, from which
apparently Erasmus derived the idea of his "terminus"
device. (After Jortin.)

device (Fig. 133). The seal of the Guild of Physicians and Surgeons at Delft was a skull with crossed bones, and the inscription: MEMENTO MORI. On the seal of Jean Coeur, Archbishop of Bourges (1479), the shield of arms is surmounted by a skeleton with bat's wings; out

of the skeleton's mouth comes a ribbon, inscribed: MEMENTO MORI.678

Inscriptions referring to death occur on a few Oriental seals.679 Thus on a seal of Chosroës I, the Great, of Persia, called Nushirvan or "the Generous Mind" (531-579 A.D.), the builder of the splendid palace (the ruins of which still remain) at Ctesiphon, there is said to have been a pessimistic inscription (such as might have been derived from Ecclesiastes) signifying: "The way is very dark, what can I see? One lives once only, what can I desire? Behind me is Death, what can delight me?" It must, however, be remembered that Chosroës was a man of great general learning, and caused many Greek, Roman, and Indian classics to be translated into Persian. At the conclusion of his first war with the Romans (532 or 533 A.D.) one of the conditions of peace imposed on the Emperor Justinian was that seven Greek, but pagan, philosophers who had resided some time at the Persian court, should be allowed to live in the Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) without being subject to the imperial laws against pagans.

678 Joseph Roman, Manuel de Sigillographie Française, Paris, 1912, p. 201. The Archbishop of Bourges (who died in 1483) was the eldest son of Jacques Coeur (1400-1456), the great merchant-financier, whose house is still a monument of interest and curiosity for all visitors to Bourges, and who was falsely accused of having poisoned Agnes Sorel, mistress of King Charles VII of France.

6:9 There is some confusion between Oriental seals and Oriental talismans. A talisman may be a gem-stone engraved with an incuse Arabic inscription like a seal, but in a talisman the inscription should not be reversed as in a seal. Carnelians are favourite stones for Oriental seals, and are likewise used for talismans; in the latter case the incuse inscription is sometimes filled in with white enamel. Such carnelian seals, owing to the red colour of the stone, have been likened by poets to red wine and red lips, and kissing has therefore been playfully likened to sealing, and a kiss to the device known as "Solomon's seal." In this footnote I have used the word "talisman" somewhat loosely for both talismans proper and protective" charms" (i.e. " amulets").