Shakespeare and Precious Stones by George Frederick Kunz
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George Frederick Kunz >> Shakespeare and Precious Stones
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SHAKESPEARE AND PRECIOUS STONES
by
GEORGE FREDERICK KUNZ, Ph.D., A.M., D.Sc.
* * * * *
THE CURIOUS LORE OF PRECIOUS STONES
Being a description of their sentiments and folklore, superstitions,
symbolism, mysticism, use in protection, prevention, religion and
divination, crystal gazing, birth-stones, lucky stones and talismans,
astral, zodiacal, and planetary.
THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS
Magic jewels and electric gems; meteorites or celestial stones; stones
of healing; fabulous stones, concretions and fossils; snake stones and
bezoars; charms of ancient and modern times; facts and fancies about
precious stones.
EACH: Profusely illustrated in color, doubletone and line.
Octavo. Handsome cloth binding, gilt top, in a box. $6.00
net. Carriage charges extra.
SHAKESPEARE AND PRECIOUS STONES
Treating of the known references to precious stones in Shakespeare's
works, with comments as to the origin of his material, the knowledge
of the poet concerning precious stones and references as to where the
precious stones of his time came from.
Four illustrations. Square Octavo. Decorated cloth. $1.25
net.
MR. WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARES
COMEDIES, HISTORIES, &
TRAGEDIES
Published according to the True Originall Copies
[Illustration: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Engraved by Martin Droeshout for the First Folio of 1623, wherein the
plays were first assembled. Reproduced from a copy of this Folio owned
by the New York Public Library. The original measures 7-1/2 x 13 in.,
or 20 x 33 cm.]
LONDON
Printed by Isaac Laggard, and Ed. Blount. 1623.
* * * * *
SHAKESPEARE AND PRECIOUS STONES
Treating of
The Known _References_ of _Precious Stones_ in Shakespeare's
Works, with Comments as to the Origin of His Material, the Knowledge
of the _Poet_ Concerning _Precious Stones_, and References as to
Where the Precious Stones of His Time Came from
The Author
GEORGE FREDERICK KUNZ PH.D., Sc.D., A.M.
Honorary President of the Shakespeare Garden Committee of New York
City; Vice President of the Permanent Shakespeare Birthday Committee
of the City of New York; Member of the Executive Committee of the New
York City Tercentenary Celebration; Member of the Mayor's Shakespeare
Celebration Committee of New York.
With Illustrations
Philadelphia & London
Imprinted
By J.B. Lippincott Company
At the Washington Square Press
Upon the Tercentenary of Shakespeare
1916
TO RUBY,
MY DAUGHTER,
WHOSE MOTHER, SOPHIA HANDFORTH
WAS BORN IN THE LAND OF
SHAKESPEARE,
AND
TO RUBY'S DAUGHTER,
GRETEL,
(THE PEARL),
THIS VOLUME IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED
FOREWORD
As no writer has made a more beautiful and telling use of precious
stones in his verse than did Shakespeare, the author believed that if
these references could be gathered together for comparison and for
quotation, and if this were done from authentic and early editions of
the great dramatist-poet's works, it would give the literary and
historical student a better understanding as to what gems were used in
Shakespeare's time, and in what terms he referred to them. This has
been done here, and comparisons are made with the precious stones of
the present time, showing what mines were known and gems were worn in
Shakespeare's day, and also something of those that were not known
then, but are known at this time.
The reader is also provided with a few important data serving to show
what could have been the sources of the poet's knowledge regarding
precious stones and whence were derived those which he may have seen
or of which he may have heard. As in this period the beauty of a
jewel depended as much, or more, upon the elaborate setting as upon
the purity and brilliancy of the gems, the author has given some
information regarding the leading goldsmith-jewellers, both English
and French, of Shakespeare's age. Thus the reader will find, besides
the very full references to the poet's words and clear directions as
to where all the passages can be located in the First Folio of 1623,
much material that will stimulate an interest in the subject and
promote further independent research.
The author wishes to express his thanks to Dr. Appleton Morgan,
President of the Shakespeare Society of New York; Miss H.C. Bartlett,
the Shakespearean bibliophile; the New York Public Library and H.M.
Leydenberg, assistant there; Gardner C. Teall; Frederic W. Erb,
assistant librarian of Columbia University; the Council of the Grolier
Club, Miss Ruth S. Granniss, librarian of the Club, and Vechten
Waring, all of New York City.
G.F.K.
NEW YORK April, 1916
CONTENTS
SHAKESPEARE AND PRECIOUS STONES
PRECIOUS STONES MENTIONED IN THE PLAYS OF
SHAKESPEARE
PRECIOUS STONES MENTIONED IN THE POEMS OF
SHAKESPEARE
ILLUSTRATIONS
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ENGRAVED BY MARTIN
DROESHOUT) _Frontispiece_
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 Traenen_"
(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:
I most go seek some dewdrops here
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act ii, sc. 1.
First Folio, "Comedies", p. 148, col. A, line 38.
And later still we have the lines:
That same dew, which sometime on the buds
Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls.
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act iv, sc. 1.
"Comedies", p. 157, col. B, line 10.
The pearl as a simile for great and transcendent value, perhaps
suggested by the Pearl of Great Price of the Gospel, is used of Helen
of Greece in the lines (_Troilus and Cressida_, Act ii, sc. 2):
She is a pearl
Whose price hath launch'd above a thousand ships.
At end of "Histories", page unnumbered
(p. 596 of facsimile), Col. A, line 19.
This being an allusion to the Greek fleet sent out under Agamemnon and
Menelaus to bring back the truant wife from Troy. The idea of a
supremely valuable pearl is also apparent in the lines embraced in
Othello's last words before his self-immolation as an expiation of the
murder of Desdemona, where he says of himself:[1]
Whose hand
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe.
_Othello_, Act v, sc. 2.
"Tragedies", p. 338, col. B, line 53.
[Footnote 1: For a Venetian tale that may have suggested these lines
to Shakespeare, see the present writer's "The Magic of Jewels and
Charms", Philadelphia and London, 1915, p. 393. The text of the First
Folio gives "Iudean", instead of "Indian".]
Although the term "Orient pearl" is that used by Shakespeare, and
undoubtedly many of the older pearls of his day were really of
Cinghalese or Persian origin, the principal source of supply was then
the Panama fishery discovered by the Spaniards about a century earlier
and actively exploited by them.[2] However, through the old
inventories made by experts familiar with the real sources of precious
stones and pearls--though not always correctly with those of the
latter--the term "Orient pearl" came in time to denote one of fine
hue, so that the "orient" of a pearl is still spoken of as signifying
a sheen of the first quality.
[Footnote 2: On the pearls brought to Europe from both North and South
America in Shakespeare's time, see the writer's "Gems and Precious
Stones of North America", New York, 1890, pp. 240-257; 2d. ed., 1892.]
Many fine pearls of the fresh-water variety, not the marine pearls,
were found in the Scotch rivers. It was these that are mentioned as
having been obtained by Julius Caesar to ornament a buckler which he
dedicated to the shrine of the Temple of Venus Genetrix. It was also
this type of pearl that was so eagerly sought by the late Queen
Victoria when she visited Scotland. Many of these pearls exist in old,
especially in ecclesiastical jewelry, and several are in the
Ashburnham missal now in the J. Pierpont Morgan library.[3]
[Footnote 3: See "The Book of the Pearl", by George Frederick Kunz and
Charles Hugh Stevenson, New York, 1908, colored plate opposite p. 16.]
Of the glowing ruby Shakespeare seems to have known little, since he
uses its name only in the conventional way to signify a bright or
choice shade of red. In _Measure for Measure_ (Act ii, sc. 4) the
"impression of keen whips" produced ruby streaks on the skin; even
more materialistic is the nose "all o'er embellished with rubies,
carbuncles and sapphires" (_Comedy of Errors_, Act iii, sc. 2). The
common employment of the designation carbuncle for a precious stone
and also for a boil was usual from ancient times. At least, we might
gather from this passage that the poet was aware of the distinction
between ruby and carbuncle (pyrope garnet). Rubies as "fairy favors"
is a dainty mention in the fairy drama _Midsummer Night's Dream_ (Act
ii, sc. 1). Caesar's wounds "ope their ruby lips" (_Julius Caesar_, Act
iii, sc. 1). Macbeth speaks of the "natural ruby of your cheeks", in
addressing his wife at the apparition of Banquo's ghost; with her this
is unchanged, while with him terror or remorse has blanched it
(_Macbeth_, Act iii, sc. 4). Lastly, the term "ruby lips", so often
used by poets, is employed by Shakespeare with consummate art in
_Cymbeline_ (Act ii, sc. 2) where he writes:
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-nur. The immense Star of South Africa, weighing 531 metric
carats, five times the weight of the Koh-i-nur, 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 praised 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 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-nur, 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 mediaeval
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 an
emerald benefited weak sight, an idea expressed as far back as 300
B.C. by Theophrastus, a pupil of Aristotle, and repeated by the Roman
Pliny in 75 A.D. The "Lover's Complaint" furnishes another pretty line
(198) contrasting the different beauties of rubies and pearls:
Of paled pearls and rubies red as blood.
In "Venus and Adonis", honey-tongued Shakespeare writes of a
"ruby-colored portal".
Pearls are noted six times, usually as similes for tears, and tears
are likened to "pearls in glass" ("Venus and Adonis", l. 980). A
tender line is that in the "Passionate Pilgrim" (hardly from
Shakespeare's hand, however):