Shakespeare and Precious Stones | Page 5

before the discovery
of the Brazilian mines (1728). In 1547, Henry VIII of England bought
of the Fuggers of Augsburg--the great money-lending bankers and
jewel setters, or royal pawnbrokers, who generally sold or forced some
jewels upon those who obtained a loan--the jewel of Charles the Bold,
called the "Three Brethren", from three large balas-rubies with which it
was set; the central ornament was a "great pointed diamond"; of its
weight nothing is known. This jewel was lost by Duke Charles on the
field of Granson, March 2, 1476, where it was secured by the Swiss
victors; it was eventually bought by the Fuggers. The other fine English
diamond was that known as the Sancy, weighing 53-3/4 carats (55.23
metric carats), acquired by James I from Nicholas Harley de Sancy, in
1604, for 500,000 crowns. This is also stated to have belonged to
Charles the Bold. In 1657 it was redeemed by Cardinal Mazarin, after
having been pledged for a loan by Queen Henrietta Maria, and at
Mazarin's death, in 1661, was bequeathed, with his other diamonds, to
the French Crown. After passing through many vicissitudes, it has
recently come into the possession of Baron Astor of Hever (William
Waldorf Astor).
There is a possibility that the Florentine diamond of 133-22/32 carats
(137.27 metric carats) was already owned by the grand-ducal house of
Tuscany before Shakespeare's death, but the earliest notice of it appears

to be that given by Fermental, a French traveller, who saw it in
Florence in 1630. The other great diamonds of former days are of more
recent date. The Regent of 136-7/8 carats (140.64 metric carats), found
in India about 1700, was acquired by the Duke of Orleans in 1717; the
Orloff (194-3/4 old carats = 199.73 metric carats) was bought by Prince
Orloff for Catherine II, in 1775, for 1,400,000 Dutch florins, or about
$560,000. The famous Koh-i-nûr, weighing 186-1/16 carats (191.1
metric carats) in its old cutting, came to Europe, as a gift to Queen
Victoria from the East India Company, only in 1850; although, if it be
the same as the great diamond taken by Humayun, son of Baber, at the
battle of Paniput, April 21, 1526, its history dates back at least to 1304,
when Sultan Ala-ed-Din took it from the Sultan of Malva, whose
family had already owned it for generations.
As fresh-colored lips are likened to rubies, so it is said of a bright eye,
that it "would emulate the diamond" (Merry Wives of Windsor, Act iii,
sc. 3).
Bright eyes are also compared to rock-crystal, and the setting of other
gems within a bordering of crystals is evidently alluded to in the
following lines from _Love's Labour's Lost_ (Act ii, sc. 1):
Methought all his senses were lock'd in his eyes As jewels in crystal.
First Folio, "Comedies", p. 128, col. A, line 7.
We have in Richard II (Act i, sc. 2) the terms "fair and crystal" applied
to a clear sky, and in Romeo and Juliet (Act i, sc. 2) the word is used to
denote superlative excellence, where a lady's love is to be weighed
against her rival on "crystal scales".
Rock-crystal was much more highly valued in the England of Elizabeth
and of James I than it is to-day, and was freely used as an adjunct to
more precious material, and still was employed to some extent in the
adornment of book-covers, although this usage, so common in
mediæval times, was fast passing away.
In Shakespeare's poems, "Venus and Adonis" (1593) and "Lucrece"
(1594), as well as in his "Sonnets" (1609), in the "Lover's Complaint"

and in the almost certainly spurious "Passionate Pilgrim", containing
two sonnets and three poems from _Love's Labour's Lost_, and which
has been included in most collections of his works, there are perhaps
relatively more frequent mentions of precious stones than in the plays,
a few of them being of special interest. Where we have twice "ruby
lips" (and once "coral lips") in the plays, the poems speak thrice of
"coral lips" or a "coral mouth";[4] a belt has "coral clasps" ("Passionate
Pilgrim", l. 366). This belt bears also "amber studs", and in the "Lover's
Complaint", l. 37, are "favours of amber", and also of "crystal, and of
beaded jet".
[Footnote 4: "Venus and Adonis", l. 542; "Lucrece", l. 420; Sonnet
cxxx, l. 2.]
Coming to the really precious stones, sapphire finds a single mention,
also in the "Lover's Complaint", l. 215, where it is termed
"heaven-hued". The same poem says of the diamond that it was
"beautiful and hard" (l. 211), thus symbolizing a heartless beauty. More
interesting are the following lines regarding the emerald (213, 214):
The deep-green emerald, in whose fresh regard Weak sights their sickly
radiance do amend.
This proves the poet's familiarity with the idea that gazing on