Alexander Dyce, A General Glossary to Shakespeare's Works

Darius — “The rich-jewel'd coffer of,” 1 HENRY VI., i. 6. 25. “When Alexander the Great took the city Gaza, the metropolis of Syria, amidst the other spoils and wealth of Darius treasured up there, he found an exceeding rich and beautiful little chest or casket. Having surveyed the singular rarity of it, and asked those about him what they thought fittest to be laid up in it; when they had severally delivered their opinions, he told them, he esteemed nothing so worthy to be preserved in it as Homer's Iliads. Vide Plutarchum in Vita Alexand. Magni” (THEOBALD) . “The very words of the text are found in Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, 1589: ‘In what price the noble poemes of Homer were holden with Alexander the Great, insomuch as every night they were layd vnder his pillow, and by day were carried in the rich iewell cofer of Darius, lately before vanquished by him in battaile’ [p. 12]” (MALONE) .