Precious Stones Mentioned in Poems
CORAL
Coral is far more red than her lips' red.
Sonnet CXXX, l. 2. H 4, l. 2.
CORAL A belt of straw and ivy buds. With coral clasps and amber studs.
"Passionate Pilgrim," l. 366. D 4, verso, 1. l, 2.2
While it cannot be regarded as certain that whenever Shakespeare writes of jewels or of rings he means those in which precious stones were set, several of the passages more or less clearly indicate this, and we therefore present here the more characteristic of the lines in question:
A Death's face in a ring.
Love's Labour's Lost, Act v, sc. 2, l. 616. "Comedies," p. 142, col. A, line 36. The dearest ring in Venice will I give you.
Merchant of Venice, Act iv, sc. 1, l. 435. "Comedies," p. 181, col. B, line 27.
2 References are here given to the original editions of "Venus and Adonis," 1593 (unique copy in the Malone Collection in the Bodleian Library, Oxford); "Lucrece," 1594; "Passionate Pilgrim," 1599, and Sonnets, 1609. As there is no continuous pagination, the letters and numbers refer to the page signatures and to the line of the page.
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