HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 273 



villa, the mother of Brutus, an " Orient pearl " valued at 

 more than a million of our English sovereigns. Pliny 

 calculates the worth of the famous pearl which Cleopatra 

 swallowed in her costly draught at a sum equal to .80,729. 

 Of course, no such amounts could now be realized. It is 

 recorded that Pompey possessed a cabinet lined entirely 

 with lustrous pearls. Pliny also informs us that he had 

 seen Lollia Paulina, who became the wife of Caligula, 

 decorate her beauty with four millions' worth of pearls 

 and emeralds ; they shone about her tresses, her ears, her 

 neck, her shoulders, and her fingers. In medieval days 

 they were not less highly prized by the chivalry and 

 beauty of England and France : by Edward IV., by 

 Catherine de -Medicis, and Gabrielle d'Estrees j by Queen 

 Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh, the Earl of Leicester, and 

 even by the ungainly James I. In our English poetry 

 allusions to their bright soft lustre are innumerable. In 

 Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona, occurs a fanci- 

 fully elegant comparison : 



" A sea of melting pearl, which some call tears." 



And in Much Ado -About Nothing we read that Hero's 

 wedding-dress of "cloth of gold" was "set with pearls." 

 Milton includes among the treasures of "the gorgeous 

 East," " barbaric pearl and gold;" and pictures beneath 

 the mysterious stairs which led up to the gate of heaven, 

 "a sea of liquid pearl." In Eden, the "crisped brooks" 

 went on their winding way, 



" Rolling on Orient pearl and sands of gold." 



The poet tells us that in the smooth Severn stream, 



" The water-nymphs that in the bottom play 

 Hold up their pearled wrists." 



