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	Shakespeare and Precious Stones cially in ecclesiastical jewelry, and several are in the Ashburnham missal now in the J. Pierpont Morgan library.⁸ Of the glowing ruby Shakespeare seems to have known little, since he uses its name only in the conventional way to signify a bright or choice shade of red. In Measure for Measure (Act ii, sc. 4) the "impression of keen whips" produced ruby streaks on the skin; even more materialistic is the nose "all o'er embellished with rubies, carbuncles and sapphires" (Comedy of Errors, Act iii, sc. 2). The common employment of the designation carbuncle for a precious stone and also for a boil was usual from ancient times. At least, we might gather from this passage that the poet was aware of the distinction between ruby and carbuncle (pyrope garnet). Rubies as "fairy favors" is a dainty mention in the fairy drama Midsummer Night's Dream (Act ii, sc. 1). Caesar's wounds "ope their ruby lips" (Julius Casar, Act iii, sc. 1). Macbeth speaks of the " natural ruby of your cheeks," in addressing his wife at the apparition of Banquo's ghost; with her this is unchanged, while with him terror or remorse 'See "The Book of the Pearl," by George Frederick Kunz and Charles Hugh Stevenson, New York, 1908, colored plate opposite p. 16. 20

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