Shakespeare made frequent reference to the gem, sometimes to illustrate the magnificence of wealth and station but more frequently in connection with dew and tears. Oberon says:
And that same dew, which some time on the buds
Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls.
King Richard III. when he argues with Queen Elizabeth for her daughter's hand in marriage, promises with smooth and brazen villainy to so offset the wrongs he had done her, that:
The liquid drops of tears that you have shed
Shall come again, transformed to orient pearls.
In "King John" Elinor speaking to Constance of Arthur, says, "Draw those heaven moving pearls from his poor eyes;" and in "King Lear," one of the gentlemen, speaking of the Queen of France when she received the news he carried, describes her mood thus:
Those happy smilets,
That played on her ripe lip, seemed not to know