aven would make me such another world
Of one entire and perfect chrysolite,
I'd not have sold her for it."

_Pearls._ The Eastern custom of powdering sovereigns at their coronation
with gold-dust and seed-pearl is alluded to in "Antony and
Cleopatra"[759] (ii. 5):

"I'll set thee in a shower of gold, and hail
Rich pearls upon thee."

[759] See Singer's "Shakespeare," vol. x. p. 213.

So Milton ("Paradise Lost," ii. 4):

"The gorgeous East, with liberal hand,
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold."

Again, to swallow a pearl in a draught seems to have been common to
royal and mercantile prodigality. In "Hamlet" (v. 2) the King says:

"The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath;
And in the cup an union[760] shall he throw."

[760] A union is a precious pearl, remarkable for its size.

Further on Hamlet himself asks, tauntingly:

"Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,
Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?"

Malone, as an illustration of this custom, quotes from the second part
of Heywood's "If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody:"

"Here sixteen thousand pound at one clap goes
Instead of sugar. Gresham drinks this pearl
Unto the queen, his mistress."

In former times powdered pearls were considered invaluable for stomach
complaints; and Rondeletius tells us that they were supposed to possess
an exhilarating quality: "Uniones quae a conchis, et valde cordiales
sunt."

Much mystery was, in bygone days, thought to hang over the origin of
pearls, and, according to the poetic Orientals,[761] "Every year, on the
sixteenth day of the month Nisan, the pearl oysters rise to the sea and
open their shells, in order to receive the rain which falls at that
time, and the drops thus caught become pearls." Thus, in "Richard III."
(iv. 4) the king says:

"The liquid drops of tears that you have shed
Shall come again, transform'd to orient pearl,
Advantaging their loan with interest
Of ten times double gain of happiness."

[761] See Jones's "History and Mystery of Precious Stones," p. 116.

Moore, in one of his Melodies, notices this pretty notion:

"And precious the tear as that rain from the sky
Which turns into pearls as it falls in the sea."

_Turquoise._ This stone was probably more esteemed for its secret
virtues than from any commercial value, the turquoise, turkise, or
turkey-stone, having from a rem