acquired
a more pathetic significance, and became the symbol of tears, as
already mentioned. Reference is frequently made to them in this
connection by many of our English poets. In his Epigram on the
Marchioness of Winchester, Milton says—
" And those Pearls of dew she wears, Prove to be presaging tears."
Shakespeare in King John, makes Constance allude
to tears as—
"Those heaven-moving Pearls from his poor eyes," Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee."
Indeed
they form a frequent metaphor in many of Shakespeare's plays. In "The
Two Gentlemen of Verona," for instance, they assist in making up a
pleasing picture of Valentine's great wealth in the possession of
Silvia's love—
"Why
man, she is mine own: Aud I as rich in having such a jewel As twenty
seas, if all their sand were Pearls, The water nectar, and the rocks
pure gold."
In
Othello's last, and perhaps most frequently quoted address after the
death of Desdemona, he prays that they might speak of him as—
" Of one whose hand Like the base Indian, threw a Pearl away Richer than all his tribe."
Pearls have been employed from very ancient times in the East, in the interpretation of dreams,
