Shakespeare and Precious Stones - Treating of the Known References of Precious Stones in Shakespeare's Works, with Comments as to the Origin of His Material, the Knowledge of the Poet Concerning Precious Stones, and References as to Where the Precious Sto by George Frederick Kunz
page 37 of 99 (37%)
page 37 of 99 (37%)
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[Footnote 16: Collectanea rerum memorabilium, Cap. 15.]
One of the most curious gem-treatises, especially as a source of early sixteenth-century beliefs in the magic properties of precious stones, the "Speculum Lapidum" of Camillo Leonardo, published in Venice, 1502, probably never came under Shakespeare's eye. Indeed, even in Italy it seems to have been so neglected that Ludovico Dolci ventured to publish a literal Italian version of the Latin original as his own work in 1565. The English "Mirror of Stones", issued in 1750, is frankly stated to be a translation of the Latin original bearing the same name.[17] [Footnote 17: Noted in the present writer's "The Curious Lore of Precious Stones", Philadelphia and London, 1913, p. 18.] In Marlowe's (1564-1593) "Hero and Leander", almost certainly written before Shakespeare's "Venus and Adonis" (1593), although not published until 1598, five years after Marlowe's death, "pearl tears" and the "sparkling diamond" are used much in the same way as by Shakespeare, as appears in the following verses: Forth from those two translucent cisterns brake A stream of liquid pearl, which down her face Made milk-white paths. Lines 296-298. Why should you worship her! her you surpass As much as sparkling diamonds flaring glass. Lines 213,214. |
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