38 Pearls, 



stately wise, nor of purpose for some great solem- 

 nitie, but only when she was to goe unto a wedding 

 supper, or rather to a feast when the assurance was 

 made, and great persons they were not that made 

 the . said feast ; I have seen her, I say, so beset 

 and bedeckt all over with Emeraulds and Pearles, 

 disposed in rowes, rankes, and courses one by 

 another, round about the attire of her head, her 

 cawle, her borders, her perruke of hair, her bon- 

 grace and chaplet ; at her ears pendant, about her 

 neck in a carcanet, upon her wrest in bracelets, and 

 on her fingers in rings ; that she glittered and 

 shone againe like the sun as she went. The value 

 of these ornaments she esteemed and rated at 400 

 hundred thousand sestertij (about ;^400,ooo sterling 

 of our money) ; and offered openly to prove it out 

 of hand by her books of accounts and reckonings." 



Pliny states that in his day, the love of Pearls 

 was so widely spread in Rome, that even women 

 of the poorer classes strove to secure the coveted 

 ornaments. 



"Now adaies also it is growne to this passe, 

 that meane women and poore men's wives affect 

 to weare them, because they would be thought 

 rich ; and a by-word it is among them, that a faire 

 Pearle at a woman's eare is as good in the street 

 where she goeth, as an huisher to make way, for 



