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Shakespeare and Precious Stones
has blanched it {Macbeth, Act iii, sc. 4). Lastly, the term "ruby lips," so often used by poets, is employed by Shakespeare with consummate art in Cymbeline (Act ii, sc. 2) where he writes:
But kiss; one kiss! Rubies unparagon'd, How dearly they do't. First Folio, "Tragedies," p. 376, col. B, line 18.
The "rubies" of the poet's time were frequently ruby spinels, or the so-called "balas rubies" from Badakshan, in Afghan Turkestan. The most noted one in the England of that period was probably the one said to have been given to Edward the Black Prince by Pedro the Cruel of Castile, after the battle of Najera, in 1367, and now the most prized adornment of the English Crown, excepting the great historic diamond, the Koh-i-nur. The immense Star of South Africa, weighing 531 metric carats, five times the weight of the Koh-i-nur, is intrinsically worth much more, but lacks the manifold dramatic and historic associations of its Indian sister.
Strange to say, the beautiful sapphire is only twice named by Shakespeare, once as an adjunct to the pearl in embroidery {Merry Wives of Windsor, Act v, sc. 5). The single mention of chrysolite is much more impressive:
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