And in "King Henry V," the King while deploring the sorrows incident to kingship, says:
'Tis not
The intertissued robe of gold and pearl
That beats upon the high shore of this world.
These two quotations indicate that the Roman custom of decorating robes and even the harness of horses with pearls was followed in Shakespeare's day by the nobles.
A line suggestive of the high-esteem in which the pearl was held in his day, and often quoted, occurs in Othello's grand but heart-broken self-denunciation just before he stabs himself:
Of one, whose hand
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away,
Richer than all his tribe.
It is evident also that stories were current then of the western Indian's ignorant prodigality in the disposition of things common to him but very precious among more enlightened people.