Shakespeare and Precious Stones | Page 4

of the Koh-i-nûr, 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.
It will have been seen that the text of Shakespeare's plays gives no
evidence tending to show any greater familiarity with precious stones
than could be gathered from the poetry of his day, and from his
intercourse with classical scholars, such as Francis Bacon, Ben Jonson,
and others of those who formed the unique assemblage wont to meet
together at the old Mermaid Tavern in London. That a diamond could

cost 2000 ducats ($5000), a very large sum in Shakespeare's time, is
noted in one of his earliest plays, the Merchant of Venice (Act iii, sc. 1),
and the following injunction emphasizes the great value of a fine
diamond:
Set this diamond safe In golden palaces, as it becomes. I Henry VI, Act
v, sc. 3. "Histories", p. 116, col. B, line 54.
In Pericles we read (Act iii, sc. 2):
The diamonds of a most praisèd water Do appear, to make the world
twice rich. Third Folio, 1664, p. 7, col. B, line 38; separate pagination.
In Shakespeare's time but few of the world's great diamonds were in
Europe, though two, at least, were in his native country. All of them
must have been of East Indian origin, as this was