We find no trace in Shakespeare's works of any belief in the many quaint and curious superstitions current in his day regarding the talismanic or curative virtues of precious stones. This is quite in keeping with the thoroughly sane outlook upon life that constituted the strong foundation of his incomparable mind. Not but that, like every true poet, the sense of mystery, and even the vague impression of the existence of occult powers, of the "Unknowable" in Nature, was strongly developed, but this is always in a broad and earnest spirit, far removed from all petty superstition.
Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI, sacrificed her heart and diamond jewel, as a symbol of her sorrow and her love, when a tempest beat back the ship that was bearing her from the continent to the English coast. Her act, as described in the following verses, seems almost an attempt to propitiate the storm (II Henry VI, Act iii, sc. 2):
When from thy shore the tempest beat us back, I stood upon the hatches in the storm, And when the dusky sky began to rob My earnest-gaping sight of thy land's view, I took a costly jewel from my neck, A heart it was, bound in with diamonds, And threw it towards thy land: the sea received it, And so I wish'd thy body might my heart. First Folio, "Histories", p. 134, col. A, lines 41-48.
The idea of the sacredness of a ring as a love-token is voiced by Portia in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice where she says (Act v, sc. 1):
I gave my love a ring and made him swear Never to part with it; and here he stands; I dare be sworn for him he would not leave it Nor pluck it from his finger, for the wealth That the world masters. First Folio, "Comedies", p. 183, col. B, lines 12-16.
The nearest approach to a sentimental characterization of precious stones is to be found in "A Lover's Complaint", lines 204-217. Although we have already noted most of them separately, it may be well to give the entire passage here consecutively:
And, lo, behold these talents of their hair, With twisted metal amorously impleach'd, I have received from many a several fair, Their kind acceptance weepingly beseech'd With the annexions of fair gems enrich'd, And deep-brain'd sonnets that did amplify Each stone's dear nature, worth and quality. The diamond,—why, 'twas beautiful and hard, Whereto his invised [8] properties did tend;
The deep-green emerald, in whose fresh regard Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend; The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend With objects manifold: each several stone, With wit well blazon'd, smiled or made some moan.
[8] Rare word, only known in this passage. Century Dictionary gives "invisible", "unseen", "uninspected", noting that some commentators suggest "inspected", "tried", "investigated".
Had Shakespeare felt much interest in the lore of gems, he had before him most of the then available material in a book of which he seems to have made some use. [9] This was an English rendering of the "De Proprietatibus Rerum" of Bartholomæus Anglicus (fl. ca. 1350), by Stephan Batman, or Bateman (d. 1587), an English divine and poet, who in the later years of his life was chaplain and librarian to the famous Archbishop Parker, and thus had free access to the latter's fine library. His rendering, published in 1582, bears the following quaint title: "Batman uppon Bartholome his Book De Proprietatibus Rerum"; it was published in 1582, and appears to have been widely read in England among those still interested in the learning of the scholastic period. A much earlier English version, made by John of Trevisa in 1396, was published by Wynkyn de Worde in 1495, and is considered to be the finest production of his press. [10]
[9] See H.R.D. Anders, "Shakespeare's Books", Berlin, 1904, pp. 238-248, and the New Shakespeare Soc. Trans., 1877-79, pp. 436 sqq.