Passing from the marvellous narratives of early travellers to
the no less wonderful descriptions of contemporary poets, we
find that precious stones held no subordinate rank in works of
the imagination. Lydgate, writing in the fifteenth century,
represents in his poem " On the Siege of Troy," the walls of
that city twenty cubits high, made of marble and alabaster
adorned at every angle with a crown of gold set with
the richest gems ; the windows of the royal palace were
wrought with beryl and crystal. A magical tree twelve
cubits in height, whose branches of gold and silver overshadowed the plain, produced blossoms of different-colored
gems, which were renewed every day. The Trojans anticipated mediaeval architecture by many centuries, since Hector
was buried near the high altar of the principal church
of Troy. In Dyer's " Golden Fleece " the palace of Priam
was paved with crystal garnished with diamonds, sapphires,
emeralds, and other precious stones, while the hall was
lighted by an enormous carbuncle set with other gems on
the gold crown of a gigantic statue of Jupiter, fifteen feet
in height.
Chaucer, Hawes, and Shakespeare all refer to the supernatural brilliancy of the carbuncle — an idea borrowed from
Arabian romances. Hawes pictures a hall of jasper, with
crystal windows, and roof overhung with a gold vine bearing
ruby grapes, which had its similitude some centuries later, at
the palace of the Mogul emperors. Spenser plants a golden
vine in Mammon's subterranean isle, which yielded hyacinths,
emeralds, and rubies. Ben Jonson's " Alchymist " presents us
with agate dishes studded with emeralds, sapphires, hyacinths,
and rubies ; and spoons of amber, ornamented with diamonds
and carbuncles. Marbodus, or Marbceuf, Bishop of Rennes, of
the eleventh century, in a poem called " Lapidarium," the
