PEARLS IN LITERATURE
poets—" She died in beauty, like a pearl dropped
from some diadem."
In Rufnni's "Dr. Antonio," man and woman
are set in marriage as a foil and complement of
each other though the metaphor shows some
misunderstanding of the qualities of gems, for
black diamonds are not as fiery as others. The
lines are:
The fiery black diamond casting lustre over the Oriental pearl: the Oriental pearl in return lending softness to the black diamond.
Dryden
does not forget pearls when he caparisons the royal mighty and in
"Palamon and Arcite" fitly thus describes Emetrius, King of Inde:
His surcoat o'er his arms was cloth of Thrace, Adorned with pearls all orient, round and great.
It
is remarkable that so many poets have seen in the pearl a simile for
raindrops and dew. Among them, Browning in the song from "Pippa
Passes," sees—
The hill-side's dew-pearled.
At
its best, the pearl is not luminous, neither does it flash nor sparkle:
the quality of it is softly lustrous as of light that smolders; but 23 353
