Q: "gold dust" used figuratively?

[Garson O'Toole]

I apologize for the multiple posts.
The playwright John Dryden uses a metaphor with dust of gold in the
eyes in The Spanish Fryar. The publication linked below is dated 1717
but Dryden died in 1700. Hence, if the text of the play has not been
altered then this is a 17th century example. Wikipedia gives a date of
1681 for The Spanish Fryar.

Elv. This is certainly the Dust of Gold which you have thrown in the
good Man's Eyes, that on the sudden he cannot see; for my Mind
misgives me, this Sickness of his is but Apocryphal!

http://books.google.com/books?id=3sI0AAAAMAAJ&q=dust+gold#v=snippet&

OED (1989) has a 1665 first cite for "Dust-Gold":
1665 Phil. Trans.  I. 117 A..way of washing out very small *Dust-gold.

Another interesting metaphor in the OED:
1699 BENTLEY  Phal. (1836) II. 29 The very dust of his writings is gold.

On Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 1:16 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Q:  "gold dust" used figuratively?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Since I've been challenged, how about, from the 18th century:
>
> Some of the High Germans seem now to have rubb'd the French Gold-Dust
> out of their Eyes, & begin to see that the French are but lukewarm in
> the Emperor's Interest in the pretended mediation with the Ottoman Port.
>
> This appeared only 1/3 of a century after the OED's earliest citation
> for the literal meaning.
>
> Joel

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