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Page 3
FIVE OF THE SIX AUTHENTIC SHAKESPEARE SIGNATURES
DIAMOND CUTTER'S SHOP, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
FROM A PORTRAIT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH
PRINTER'S MARK 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 Tr�nen_"
(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.
Moreover, we have a simile which might almost make us suppose that
Shakespeare knew something of the details of the pearl fisheries, when
the oysters are piled up on shore and allowed to decompose, so as to
render it easier to get at the pearls, for he makes one of his
characters say, speaking of an honest man in a poor dwelling, that he
was like a "pearl in your foul oyster". (_As You Like It_, Act v,
sc. 4.)
In the strange transformation told of in Ariel's song, the bones of
the drowned man have been turned to coral, and his eyes to pearls
(_Tempest_, Act i, sc. 2). The strange and sometimes morbid
attraction of opposites finds expression in a queer old English
proverbial saying given in the _Two Gentlemen of Verona_:
"Black men are pearls in beauteous ladies' eyes". The likeness to
drops of dew appears where we read of the dew that it was "Decking
with liquid pearl the bladed grass" (_Midsummer Night's Dream_,
Act i, sc. 1), and a little later in the same play we read the
following injunction:
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