Shakespeare and Precious Stones
carats) in its old cutting, came to Europe, as a gift to Queen Victoria from the East India Company," only in 1850 although, if it be the same as the great diamond taken by Humayun, son of Baber, at the battle of Paniput, April 21, 1526, its history dates back at least to 1304, when Sultan Ala-ed-Din took it from the Sultan of Malva, whose family had already owned it for generations.
As fresh-colored lips are likened to rubies, so it is said of a bright eye, that it "would emulate the diamond" {Merry Wives of Windsor, Act in, sc. 3).
Bright eyes are also compared to rock-crystal, and the setting of other gems within a bordering of crystals is evidently alluded to in the following lines from Love's Labour's Lost (Act ii, sc. 1):
Methought all his senses were lock'd in his eyes As jewels in crystal.
First Folio, "Comedies," p. 128, col. A, line 7.
We have in Richard II (Act i, sc. 1) the terms "fair and crystal" applied to a clear sky, and in Romeo and Juliet (Act i, sc. 2) the word is used to denote superlative excellence, where a lady's love is to be weighed against her rival on "crystal scales."
Rock-crystal was much more highly valued in
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