Shakespeare and Precious Stones | Page 7

Comedy of Errors (Act iii, sc. 2), when one of the Dromios, in

locating the various lands of the world on parts of his mistress's body,
to the query of Antipholus: "Where America, the Indies?" replies: "Oh,
sir, upon her nose, all o'er embellished with rubies, carbuncles,
sapphires". This is the only mention of America in the plays.
A coincidence having its own significance is that April 23, the day of
Shakespeare's death and also his birthday, was the day dedicated to St.
George, the patron saint of Merry England. The war-cry of England is
given several times by Shakespeare, as, for example:
Cry, God for Harry, England and Saint George! Henry V, Act iii, sc. 1.
First Folio, "Histories", p. 77, col. B, line 51. God and Saint George!
Richmond and Victory! Richard III, Act v, sc. 3. First Folio,
"Histories", p. 203, col. A, line 31.
And in I Henry VI (Act i, sc. 1) we read:
Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make, To keep our great Saint
George's feast withal. First Folio, "Histories", p. 97, col. B, line 97.
We find no trace in Shakespeare's works of any belief in the many
quaint and curious superstitions current in his day regarding the
talismanic or curative virtues of precious stones. This is quite in
keeping with the thoroughly sane outlook upon life that constituted the
strong foundation of his incomparable mind. Not but that, like every
true poet, the sense of mystery, and even the vague impression of the
existence of occult powers, of the "Unknowable" in Nature, was
strongly developed, but this is always in a broad and earnest spirit, far
removed from all petty superstition.
Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI, sacrificed her heart and diamond
jewel, as a symbol of her sorrow and her love, when a tempest beat
back the ship that was bearing her from the continent to the English
coast. Her act, as described in the following verses, seems almost an
attempt to propitiate the storm (II Henry VI, Act iii, sc. 2):
When from thy shore the tempest beat us back, I stood upon the hatches
in the storm, And when the dusky sky began to rob My earnest-gaping

sight of thy land's view, I took a costly jewel from my neck, A heart it
was, bound in with diamonds, And threw it towards thy land: the sea
received it, And so I wish'd thy body might my heart. First Folio,
"Histories", p. 134, col. A, lines 41-48.
The idea of the sacredness of a ring as a love-token is voiced by Portia
in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice where she says (Act v, sc. 1):
I gave my love a ring and made him swear Never to part with it; and
here he stands; I dare be sworn for him he would not leave it Nor pluck
it from his finger, for the wealth That the world masters. First Folio,
"Comedies", p. 183, col. B, lines 12-16.
The nearest approach to a sentimental characterization of precious
stones is to be found in "A Lover's Complaint", lines 204-217.
Although we have already noted most of them separately, it may be
well to give the entire passage here consecutively:
And, lo, behold these talents of their hair, With twisted metal
amorously impleach'd, I have received from many a several fair, Their
kind acceptance weepingly beseech'd With the annexions of fair gems
enrich'd, And deep-brain'd sonnets that did amplify Each stone's dear
nature, worth and quality. The diamond,--why, 'twas beautiful and hard,
Whereto his invised[8] properties did tend; The deep-green emerald, in
whose fresh regard Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend; The
heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend With objects manifold: each
several stone, With wit well blazon'd, smiled or made some moan.
[Footnote 8: Rare word, only known in this passage. Century
Dictionary gives "invisible", "unseen", "uninspected", noting that some
commentators suggest "inspected", "tried", "investigated".]
Had Shakespeare felt much interest in the lore of gems, he had before
him most of the then available material in a book of which he seems to
have made some use.[9] This was an English rendering of the "De
Proprietatibus Rerum" of Bartholomæus Anglicus (fl. ca. 1350), by
Stephan Batman, or Bateman (d. 1587), an English divine and poet,
who in the later years of his life was chaplain and librarian to the

famous Archbishop Parker, and thus had free access to the latter's fine
library. His rendering, published in 1582, bears the following quaint
title: "Batman uppon Bartholome his Book De Proprietatibus Rerum";
it was published in 1582, and appears to have been widely read in
England among those still interested in the learning of the scholastic
period. A much earlier English version, made by John of Trevisa in
1396, was published by Wynkyn de