Read Ebook: 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 by Kunz George Frederick

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In commemoration of the Tercentenary of Shakespeare's death, the Shakespearean scholar, Miss H.C. Bartlett, prepared for the New York Public Library an exhibition of Shakespearean books, including all the early editions of the quartos; the various editions of the folios; the works of contemporaneous authors whom Shakespeare had consulted; and also the early works that mention Shakespeare, or cite from his plays or poems, including Greene's "Groat's Worth of Wit", published in 1592 by Henry Chettle and containing the earliest printed allusion to Shakespeare under the name of "Shake-scene".

A rather attractive bit of verse, purporting to have been written by Shakespeare and dedicated to the woman who became his wife in 1582, when he was but eighteen years old , alludes in its third stanza to "the orient list" of gems, diamond, topaz, amethyst, emerald, and ruby. This little poem, with its play upon the lady-love's name, can find a place here, although many readers are already familiar with it.

TO THE IDOL OF MINE EYES AND THE DELIGHT OF MINE HEART,

ANNE HATHAWAY

Would ye be taught, ye feathered throng, With love's sweet notes to grace your song, To pierce the heart with thrilling lay, Listen to mine Anne Hathaway! She hath a way to sing so clear, Phoebus might wond'ring stop to hear; To melt the sad, make blithe the gay, And nature charm, Anne hath a way: She hath a way, Anne Hathaway, To breathe delight Anne hath a way.

When envy's breath and rancorous tooth Do soil and bite fair worth and truth, And merit to distress betray, To soothe the heart Anne hath a way; She hath a way to chase despair, To heal all grief, to cure all care, Turn foulest night to fairest day: Thou know'st, fond heart, Anne hath a way, She hath a way, Anne Hathaway, To make grief bliss Anne hath a way.

Talk not of gems, the orient list, The diamond, topaz, amethyst, The emerald mild, the ruby gay; Talk of my gem, Anne Hathaway! She hath a way, with her bright eye, Their various lustre to defy, The jewel she and the foil they, So sweet to look Anne hath a way. She hath a way, Anne Hathaway, To make grief bliss Anne hath a way.

But were it to my fancy given To rate her charms, I'd call them Heaven; For though a mortal made of clay, Angels must love Anne Hathaway. She hath a way so to control To rupture the imprisoned soul, And sweetest Heaven on earth display, That to be Heaven Anne hath a way! She hath a way, Anne Hathaway, To be Heaven's self Anne hath a way.

This little poem is by Charles Dibdin , the writer of about 1200 sea-songs, at one time great favorites with sailors. It appeared, in 1792, in his long-forgotten novel, "Hannah Hewit, or the Female Crusoe", and Sir Sidney Lee conjectures that it may have been composed on the occasion of the Stratford jubilee of 1769, in the organization of which Dibdin aided the great actor, David Garrick. In the "Poems of Places", New York, 1877, edited by Henry W. Longfellow, this poem is assigned to Shakespeare on the strength of a persistent popular error. In his "Life" Dibdin says: "My songs have been the solace of sailors in their long voyages, in storms, in battle; and they have been quoted in mutinies to the restoration of order and discipline". It has been asserted that they brought more men into the navy than all the press gangs could do.

The poem has sometimes been attributed to Edmund Falconer , an actor and dramatist, born in Dublin, and whose real name was Edmund O'Rourke. However, his poem entitled "Anne Hathaway, A Traditionary Ballad sung to a Day Dreamer by the Mummers of Shottery Brook", falls far below the lines we have quoted in poetic quality, as may be seen from the opening stanza , which runs as follows:

No beard on thy chin, but a fire in thine eye, With lustiest Manhood's in passion to vie, A stripling in form, with a tongue that can make The oldest folks listen, maids sweethearts forsake, Hie over the fields at the first blush of May, And give thy boy's heart unto Anne Hathaway.

In none of the allusions to precious stones made by Shakespeare is there any indication that he had in mind any of the Biblical passages treating of gems. The most notable of these are the enumeration of the twelve stones in Aaron's breast-plate , the list of the foundation stones and gates of the New Jerusalem given by John in Revelation , and the description of the Tyrian king's "covering" in Ezekiel . Had the poet given any particular attention to these texts we could scarcely fail to note the fact. Other Bible mentions, such as those elsewhere made by Ezekiel , regarding the trade of Tyre, the agates from Syria, and the precious stones brought by the Arabian or Syrian merchants of Sheba and Raamah, are too much generalized to invite any special notice. The same may be said of most of the remaining brief allusions. We might rather expect that where the color or brilliancy of a precious stone is used as a simile this might strike a poet's fancy and perhaps find direct expression in his own words. The light of the New Jerusalem is likened to "a jasper stone, clear as crystal" , and in Exodus the sapphire stone is said to be "as it were the body of heaven in its clearness". However, that Shakespeare wrote of "the heaven-hued sapphire" has no necessary connection with this, as the celestial hue of the beautiful sapphire is spoken of time and again by many of the older writers.

It should be borne in mind that the great English translation of the Bible, popularly called "King James' Bible", was published only after Shakespeare had completed his last play in 1611. Before that time, dating from Tyndale's version of 1525, and in great measure based on it, a number of English translations had appeared, the most authoritative in Shakspeare's time being perhaps the "Bishops' Bible", printed under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth in 1568, and edited by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Geneva Bible of 1560, the first entire Bible in English in which the division into chapters and verses was carried out, had, however, the widest dissemination in Shakespeare's time, and a careful study of passages in his works referable to Biblical texts appears to prove that this version was the one with which he was most familiar. His plays testify to his close knowledge of the Scriptures, although no writer is less fettered by purely doctrinal considerations. The Geneva Bible went through no less than sixty editions in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and even after the issue of the "Authorized Version" in 1611 it competed successfully with this for a time.

And the sea Pontus evermore floweth and runneth out into Propontic, but the sea never retireth backe againe within Pontus.

Othello replies thus to Iago's conjecture that he may change his mind :

Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic sea, Whose icy current and compulsive course Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on To the Propontic and the Hellespont, Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace, Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love. First Folio, "Tragedies", p. 326, col. B, lines 34-39.

There is, however, no trace of any familiarity on Shakespeare's part with the precious stone lore of the Roman encyclopaedist, either from the Latin text of his great "Historia Naturalis", or from the translation published by Holland in 1601. This translator, who Englished many of the chief Latin and Greek authors, Suetonius, Livy, Ammianus Marcellinus, Plutarch's "Morals" and other works, was pronounced by Fuller, in his "Worthies", to be "translator general in his age", adding that "these books alone of his turning into English will make a country gentleman a competent library". For his Ammianus Marcellinus the Council of Coventry, his place of residence, paid him ?4, and ?5 for a translation of Camden's "Britannia"--small sums, indeed, for so much labor, but not so unreasonable when we think that a half-century later the immortal Milton got but ?5 for his "Paradise Lost". He was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, where he had studied and graduated; later he studied medicine, receiving a degree of M.D., not from Oxford or Cambridge, however, but either from a Scottish or foreign university.

Although Solinus, writing in the third century A.D., relies mainly upon Pliny for his information on precious stones, still he here and there gives evidence of a more critical spirit, as when he says of the rock-crystal that the theory according to which it was frozen and hardened water was necessarily incorrect, for it was to be found in such mild climates as "Alabanda in Asia and the island of Cyprus". This is the more notable that the wholly incorrect view persisted into the sixteenth century, so learned a writer as Lord Bacon restating it in his last work, "Sylva Sylvarum".

One of the most curious gem-treatises, especially as a source of early sixteenth-century beliefs in the magic properties of precious stones, the "Speculum Lapidum" of Camillo Leonardo, published in Venice, 1502, probably never came under Shakespeare's eye. Indeed, even in Italy it seems to have been so neglected that Ludovico Dolci ventured to publish a literal Italian version of the Latin original as his own work in 1565. The English "Mirror of Stones", issued in 1750, is frankly stated to be a translation of the Latin original bearing the same name.

In Marlowe's "Hero and Leander", almost certainly written before Shakespeare's "Venus and Adonis" , although not published until 1598, five years after Marlowe's death, "pearl tears" and the "sparkling diamond" are used much in the same way as by Shakespeare, as appears in the following verses:

Forth from those two translucent cisterns brake A stream of liquid pearl, which down her face Made milk-white paths. Lines 296-298.

Why should you worship her! her you surpass As much as sparkling diamonds flaring glass. Lines 213,214.

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?

This is followed very closely by Shakespeare, with the substitution of "pearl" for "face".

The greatest of the world's poets lived in a period midway between the highest development of Renaissance civilization and the foundation of our modern civilization, and he was thus at once heir to the rich treasures of a glorious past, and endowed with a poetic, or we might say a prophetic insight that makes his works appeal as closely to the readers of to-day as to those of his own time.

In the four leading European nations of the age--Italy, despite her high rank in art, still lacked national unity--four sovereigns of marked though widely diverse character and attainments reigned for a considerable part of Shakespeare's life. Of the "Virgin Queen" we scarcely need to write. The England of her day, and of later days, would not have been what it was and what it became, without the aid of her mingled shrewdness and prudence. Faults she had and shortcomings, but, granted the almost overpowering difficulties she had to face, both at home and abroad, it is doubtful whether a more decided, a more straight-forward policy would have been as successful as the somewhat devious one she pursued. Her chief rival, Philip II , as much averse as Elizabeth herself to energetic action, even more fond of procrastination, lacked her relative religious and political tolerance, and left Spain weaker than he had found it. And still his tenacity, his devotion to the cause he believed to be that of heaven, his consistency, and even the gloomy seriousness of his life, testify to a strong soul, though a thoroughly unlovable one.

The reign of the eccentric Rudolph II, Emperor of Germany , whose imperial residence was at Prague, covers the greater part of Shakespeare's life. In spite of many failings and mistakes, this monarch did much to foster the study of the arts and sciences of his age, so far as he was able to understand them. That he was for a time the dupe of adventurers and alchemists, such as the half-visionary John Dee and the altogether unscrupulous Edward Kelley, was no unusual experience in those days, when the dividing line between true science and charlatanism was too indistinctly marked to be easily discernible.

In the East, just coming into closer commercial intercourse with Europe, the long reign of the greatest of the Mogul emperors, Jelal-ed-din Akbar , began two years before the accession of Elizabeth and lasted two years after her death. Probably no Oriental sovereign, certainly no Indian sovereign, ranks higher than Akbar, who was at once a great statesman, an able organizer, and singularly tolerant in religion. In Persia, one of the most marked rulers of this land, Abbas the Great, began to reign in 1584 and died in 1628.

In no period was jewelry worn more ornately, or with greater display, we might almost say ostentation, than in the age of Shakespeare. As a rule, in this period the precious stones were less considered than the elaborate goldsmith work in which they were placed. They were the adjuncts, rather than the principal glory of the jewel.

The court jeweller of James VI of Scotland and of this monarch after his accession to the English throne, as James I, was George Heriot , born in Edinburgh, the son of a member of the company of goldsmiths in that city. As the Scotch goldsmiths cumulated the profession of money-lending with that of goldsmithing, they were usually persons of considerable account among the citizens. Heriot became a member of the company in 1588, the year of the Spanish Armada. Despite the rather straitened circumstances of the Scottish court, considerable amounts were expended for jewels, especially as the queen, Anne of Denmark, was very fond of display. The nobility also, such of them at least as possessed the means, were inclined to deck themselves out with brilliant jewels and splendid ornaments of massive gold. Heriot's appointment as goldsmith to the queen dates from 1597; soon after this he was made jeweller and goldsmith to the king. He followed the court to London in 1603, when King James succeeded to Elizabeth, and at the time of his death, February 12, 1624, had amassed the sum of ?50,000 by his profitable connection with the court, and had also acquired lands and houses at Rochampton, in Surrey, and St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, London. His residuary estate, which amounted to ?23,625 , he entrusted to the provosts, bailiffs, ministers, and ordinary town-council of Edinburgh for the erection of an institution to be called Heriot's Hospital, where a number of poor freemen's sons of the town should be educated. This foundation still exists, and the excellent management of those who have had to do with the endowment is shown by the fact that the income it now produces equals the whole sum of the original bequest.

This great Scotch goldsmith fashioned a number of splendid rings for the queen. An old account furnished by Heriot lists them as follows:

A ring with a heart and serpent, all set about with diamonds;

A ring with a single diamond, set in a heart betwixt two hands;

A great ring in the form of a perssed hand and a perssed eye, all sett with diamonds;

One great ring, in forme of a frog, all set with diamonds, price two-hundreth poundis;

A ring of a burning heart set with diamondis;

A ring in the forme af a scallope shell, set with a table diamond, and opening on the head;

A ring of a love trophe set with diamondis;

Two rings, lyke black flowers, with a table diamond in each;

A daissie ring sett with a table diamond;

A ryng sett all over with diamondis, made in fashion of a lizard, 120 l.;

A ring set with 9 diamonds, and opening on the head with the King's picture in that.

Heriot also lists a ring delivered about 1607 to Margaret Hartsyde, one of the royal household, describing it as "sett all about with diamondis, and a table diamond on the head"; that is, in the bezel. He states that he had been given to understand that this was by direction of Her Majesty. His precaution in making this note appears to have been fully justified, for this Margaret Hartsyde was tried in Edinburgh, May 31, 1608, on the charge of having purloined a pearl belonging to the queen and valued at ?110. Her excuse was that she had taken this and other pearls to adorn dolls for the amusement of the royal children, and that she did not expect the queen would ask for them. As, however, it was brought out in the trial that she had cleverly disguised some of the pearls she had taken, and had offered to sell them to the queen, she was condemned to imprisonment in Blackness Castle until the payment of a fine of ?400, and to confinement in Orkney during the remainder of her life. Eleven years later, however, the king's advocate "produced a letter of rehabilitation and restitution of Margaret Hartsyde to her fame".

That but few fine diamonds were in Europe when Shakespeare wrote has already been noted; indeed, the annual importation from India, then the only source, can hardly have exceeded 0,000 on an average, while at the present day the value of the diamonds from the great African mines imported into Europe and America amounts to from ,000,000 to ,000,000 each year.

In King James's reign, besides Heriot, William Herrick and John Spilman were appointed jewellers to the king, queen, and prince, the annual emoluments being ?50 annually. It is stated that Herrick furnished jewels worth ?36,000 to Queen Anne of Denmark. Such of her many jewels as were to be found when she died are said to have been left to her son, later Charles I, and none to her daughter Elizabeth, later Queen of Bohemia and ancestress of many of the sovereigns of Europe, as well as of the present reigning house in England. Unfortunately for her heir, a great part of the jewels had been embezzled, and could not be recovered, although models of many had been carefully preserved by William Herrick, who swore that the originals had been delivered to the queen. Less notable jewellers of King James's day were Philip Jacobson, Arnold Lulls, John Acton, and John Williams. One of them, Arnold Lulls, has left a fine set of contemporary drawings representing jewels of the epoch; these are now to be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. As an instance of the value of some of the jewels of his design, it is recorded that the sum of ?1550 was paid for a diamond jewel with pearl pendants and two dozen buttons, furnished to the king to be bestowed upon the queen at the christening of the Princess Mary in 1605.

While the jeweller's art in England was still under the influence of foreign goldsmiths in Elizabeth's time, it had to a considerable extent emancipated itself from foreign control in the latter part of her reign and in that of her successor. In addition to George Heriot, whom we have just noticed, several others are well worthy of mention, such as Dericke Anthony, Affabel Partridge, Peter Trender, and Nicolas Herrick, the father of the poet Robert Herrick, who makes many a telling use of the colors and charm of precious stones and pearls in his dainty poems. To these must be added Sir John Spilman, of German birth, who made many jewels at the royal command.

We should remember that for the cutting of precious stones steam-power was not then available, "man-power" being employed. A large turning wheel was pushed around by a man holding a bar extending from it. The motion of this large wheel was transmitted to other smaller ones. The number of revolutions per minute hardly exceeded a few hundred, while in modern times a speed of from 2000 to 2500 revolutions per minute is attained. The diamond cutting industry was largely in the hands of Jews in Lisbon.

The German traveller, Paul Hentzner, who visited England in 1598, toward the end of Elizabeth's life, describes her jewelling in the following words:

"The Queen had in her ears two pearls with very rich drops; she wore false hair and that red; upon her head she had a small crown; her bosom was uncovered, and she had on a necklace of exceedingly fine jewels. She was dressed in white silk, bordered with pearls of the size of beans, and over it a mantle of black silk shot with silver threads; her train was very long. Instead of a chain, she had an oblong collar of gold and jewels".

In addition to this display the traveller tells us that the queen's right hand was fairly sparkling with jewelled rings.

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