ILLUSTRATIONS

      William Shakespeare (engraved by Martin
      Droeshout) Frontispiece

      Five of the six authentic Shakespeare signatures

      Diamond cutter’s shop, eighteenth century

      From A portrait of queen Elizabeth

      Printer’smark of Richard field

SHAKESPEARE AND PRECIOUS STONES

So wide is the range of the immortal verse of Shakespeare, and so many and various are the subjects he touched upon and adorned with the magic beauty of his poetic imagery, that it will be of great interest to refer to the allusions to gems and precious stones in his plays and poems.  These allusions are all given in the latter part of this volume.  What can we learn from them of Shakespeare’s knowledge of the source, quality, and use of these precious stones?

The great favor that pearls enjoyed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is, as we see, reflected by the frequency with which he speaks of them, and the different passages reveal in several instances a knowledge of the ancient tales of their formation and principal source.  Thus, in Troilus and Cressida (Act i, sc. 1) he writes:  “Her bed is India; there she lies, a pearl”; and Pliny’s tales of the pearl’s origin from dew are glanced at indirectly when he says: 

The liquid drops of tears that you have shed
Shall come again, transform’d to orient pearl.

                            Richard III, Act iv, sc. 4. 
       First Folio, “Histories”, p. 198, col.  A, line 17.

This is undoubtedly the reason for the comparison between pearls and tears, leading to the German proverb, “Perlen bedeuten Traenen” (Pearls mean tears), which was then taken to signify that pearls portended tears, instead of that they were the offspring of drops of liquid.  The world-famed pearl of Cleopatra, which she drank after dissolving it, so as to win her wager with Antony that she would entertain him with a banquet costing a certain immense sum of money, is not even noticed, however, in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra.  In the poet’s time pearls were not only worn as jewels, but were extensively used in embroidering rich garments and upholstery and for the adornment of harnesses.  To this Shakespeare alludes in the following passages: 

The intertissued robe of gold and pearl.
Henry V, Act iv, sc. 1. 
First Folio, “Histories”, p. 85 (page number repeated),
col.  B, line 13.

Their harness studded all with gold and pearl.
Taming of the Shrew, Introd., sc. 2. 
“Comedies”, p. 209, col.  B, line 33.

Fine linen, Turkey cushions boss’d with pearl.
Ibid., Act ii, sc. 1. 
“Comedies”, p. 217, col.  B, line 32.

Laced with silver, set with pearls.
Much Ado About Nothing, Act iii, sc. 4. 
“Comedies”, p. 112, col.  B, line 65.