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A Chaplet of Pearls: Shakspeare

Shakspeare ("Richard III."):- "The liquid drops of tears that you have shed Shall come again, transform'd to orient pearl, Advantaging their loan with interest Of ten-times-double gain of happiness."

In Lee's "Mithridates" we have:- "'Twould raise your pity, but to see the tears Force through her snowy lids their melting course, To lodge themselves on her red murmuring lips That talk such mournful things; when straight a gale Of startling sighs carry those pearls away, As dews by winds are wafted from the flowers."

Elena Piscopia (1684), of the Corraro family of Venice, had a medal struck in her honour, on the reverse of which is an open shell, receiving the drops of dew from heaven, which form into pearls: the motto was Rore divino-by the divine dew.

Crashaw, in the "Tear," says:- "Such a pearl as this is (Slipt from Aurora's dewy breast) The rose-bud sweet lip kisses."

Chamberlayne in "Love's Victory":- "The morning pearls Dropt in the lillie's spotlesse bosome, are Less chastely cool, ere the meridian sun Hath kist them into heat."