Shakespeare and Precious Stones
Set this diamond safe In golden palaces, as it becomes.
/ Henry VI, Act v, sc.3. "Histories," p. 116, col. B, line 54.
In Pericles we read (Act iii, sc. 2):
The diamonds of a most praised water Do appear, to make the world twice rich. Third Folio, 1664, p. 7, col. B, line 38;
separate pagination.
In Shakespeare's time but few of the world's great diamonds were in Europe, though two, at least, were in his native country. All of them must have been of East Indian origin, as this was before the discovery of the Brazilian mines (1728). In 1547, Henry VIII of England bought of the Fuggers of Augsburg the great moneylending bankers and jewel setters, or royal pawnbrokers, who generally sold or forced some jewels upon those who obtained a loan the jewel of Charles the Bold, called the "Three Brethren," from three large balas-rubies with which it was set; the central ornament was a "great pointed diamond"; of its weight nothing is known. This jewel was lost by Duke Charles on the field of Granson, March 2, 1476, where it was secured by the Swiss victors; it was eventually bought by the Fuggers. The other fine English diamond was that known as the Sancy,
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