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 remote period been supposed to possess talismanic properties. Thus, in the “Merchant of Venice” (iii. 1), Shylock says: “It was my turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor: I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.” Mr. Dyce[762] says that Shylock valued his turquoise, “not only as being the gift of Leah, but on account of the imaginary virtues ascribed to it: which was supposed to become pale or to brighten according as the health of the wearer was bad or good.” Thus, Ben Jonson, in “Sejanus” (i. 1), alludes to its wonderful properties:
“And true as turkoise in the dear lord’s ring,
Look well or ill with him.”
Fenton, in his “Certain Secret Wonders of Nature” (1569), thus describes it: “The turkeys doth move when there is any evil prepared to him that weareth it.” There were numerous other magical properties ascribed to the turquoise. Thus, it was supposed to lose its color entirely at the death of its owner, but to recover it when placed upon the finger of a new and healthy possessor. It was also said that whoever wore a turquoise, so that either it or its setting touched the skin, might fall from any height, the stone attracting to itself the whole force of the blow. With the Germans, the turquoise is still the gem appropriated to the ring, the “gage d’amour,” presented by the lover on the acceptance of his suit, the permanence of its color being believed to depend upon the constancy of his affection.[763]
FOOTNOTES:
[753] Jones’s “Finger-Ring Lore,” 1877, p. 91.
[754] Wordsworth’s “Shakespeare and the Bible,” 1880, p. 283.
[755] See Jones’s “Finger-Ring Lore,” 1877, p. 372.
[756] See Jones’s “Finger-Ring Lore,” 1877, p. 88.