|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 5
But kiss; one kiss! Rubies unparagon'd,
How dearly they do't.
First Folio, "Tragedies", p. 376, col. B, line 18.
The "rubies" of the poet's time were frequently ruby spinels, or the
so-called "balas rubies" from Badakshan, in Afghan Turkestan. The most
noted one in the England of that period was probably the one said to
have been given to Edward the Black Prince by Pedro the Cruel of
Castile, after the battle of Najera, in 1367, and now the most prized
adornment of the English Crown, excepting the great historic diamond,
the Koh-i-n�r. The immense Star of South Africa, weighing 531 metric
carats, five times the weight of the Koh-i-n�r, is intrinsically worth
much more, but lacks the manifold dramatic and historic associations
of its Indian sister.
Strange to say, the beautiful sapphire is only twice named by
Shakespeare, once as an adjunct to the pearl in embroidery (_Merry
Wives of Windsor_, Act v, sc. 5). The single mention of chrysolite is
much more impressive:
If heaven would make me such another world,
Of one entire and perfect chrysolite!
_Othello_, Act v, sc. 2.
"Tragedies", p. 337, col. A, line 5.
Chrysolite (peridot, or olivine) was regarded in Shakespeare's time
and earlier as of exceptional rarity. The fine peridots of the Chapel
of the Three Kings in Cologne Cathedral were believed to be emeralds
of extraordinary size and were once valued at $15,000,000, although
they are really worth barely $100,000; some of them are more than an
inch in diameter. Whence they came is uncertain, but it is probable
that they were brought from the East at some time during the Crusades.
Indeed the origin of the fine peridots of the Middle Ages is shrouded
in mystery; they are, however, believed to have been found in one or
more of the islands in the Red Sea. In our day a number of specimens
have been discovered on the small island of St. John in that sea; the
deposit here is a jealously-guarded monopoly of the Egyptian
Government. Peridots have also been found at Spyrget Island, in the
Arabian Gulf. The most remarkable source of gem-material of this stone
is meteoric, a few gems weighing as much as a carat each having been
cut out of some yellowish-green peridot obtained by the writer from
the meteoric iron of Glorieta Mountain, New Mexico.
That a turquoise, presumably set in a ring, was given to Shylock by
Leah before their marriage, perhaps at their betrothal, is all that
Shakespeare has found occasion to write of this pretty stone, one of
the earliest used for adornment in the world's history, as the great
mines of Nishapur, in Persia, and those of the Sinai Peninsula were
worked at a very early time, the latter by the Egyptians as far back
as 4000 B.C. With the opal, the poet has seized upon its most
characteristic quality, its changeableness of hue, where he says in
_Twelfth Night_ (Act ii, sc. 4): "Thy mind is a very opal".
A luminous ring is poetically described in one of Shakespeare's
earliest plays, _Titus Andronicus_, written in or about 1590. The
lines referring to the ring are highly expressive. After the murder of
Bassianus, Martius searches in the depths of a dark pit for the dead
body, and suddenly cries out to his companion Quintus that he has
discovered the bloody corpse. As the interior of the pit is pitch
dark, Quintus can scarcely believe what he hears, and he asks Martius
how the latter could possibly see what he has described. The answer is
given in the following lines:
Upon his bloody finger he doth wear
A precious ring, that lightens all the hole,
Which, like a taper in some monument,
Doth shine upon the dead man's earthy cheeks,
And shows the ragged entrails of the pit.
_Titus Andronicus_, Act ii, sc. 3.
First Folio, "Tragedies", p. 38, col. B, lines 53-57.
This certainly was suggested by the common belief in naturally
luminous stones, a belief partly due to a superstitious explanation of
the ruddy brilliancy of rubies and garnets as resulting from a hidden
fire in the stone, and partly, perhaps, to the occasional observation
of the phenomena of phosphorescence or fluorescence in certain
precious stones.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|