And in " King Henry V," the King while deploring the sorrows incident to kingship, says:
'Tis not The intertissued robe of gold and pearl That beats upon the high shore of this world.
These
two quotations indicate that the Roman custom of decorating robes and
even the harness of horses with pearls was followed in Shakespeare's
day by the nobles.
A
line suggestive of the high-esteem in which the pearl was held in his
day, and often quoted, occurs in Othello's grand but heart-broken
self-denunciation just before he stabs himself:
Of one, whose hand Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away, Richer than all his tribe.
It
is evident also that stories were current then of the western Indian's
ignorant prodigality in the disposition of things common to him but
very precious among more enlightened people.
In "King Richard III," Duke Clarence sees in his dream of drowning, "Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl."
Several times the great dramatist puts the gem in somewhat grewsome setting. In "A Sea Dirge" however, the bare horror of the
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