PEARLS IN LITERATURE
King
Richard III. when he argues with Queen Elizabeth for her daughter's
hand in marriage, promises with smooth and brazen villany to so offset
the wrongs he had done her, that:
The liquid drops of tears that you have shed Shall come again, transformed to orient pearls.
In
"King John" Elinor speaking to Constance of Arthur, says, "Draw those
heaven moving pearls from his poor eyes;" and in "King Lear," one of
the gentlemen, speaking of the Queen of France when she received the
news he carried, describes her mood thus:
Those
happy smilets, That played on her ripe lip, seemed not to know What
guests were in her eyes, which parted thence, As pearls from diamonds
dropp'd.
In "Midsummer Night's Dream," Lysander says to Helen:
To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold Her silver visage in the wat'ry glass, Decking With liquid pearl the bladed grass.
Among
his recognitions of pearls as a sign of the luxury of wealth and high
position, he makes a lord say, in the "Taming of the Shrew,"
Or wilt thou ride? Thy horses shall be trapp'd Their harness studded all with gold and pearl.
