They have in EnglandA coin that bears the figure of an angelStampèd in gold …(Merchant of Venice II. vii. 55-57)The scholar or casual reader whose interest is drawn to Renaissance English literature discovers very early that, in the fantastic profusion of puns and punning allusions that delighted the hearts of Englishmen in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, second in frequency only to the cuckold's horns is a thin gold coin called the angel. The uses made of it range from the casual pun ‘There's a pair of angels to guide you to your lodgings’ to elaborate metaphors which mold a scene or provide the vehicle for an entire poem, as in Donne's Elegie XI, ‘The Bracelet’.
Book Review: Thomas Moisan and Douglas Bruster (eds). In the Company of Shakespeare: Essays on English Renaissance Literature in Honor of G. Blakemore Evans. Madison and Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; London: Associated University Presses, 2002.