etian fleet, at Istria, over Frederick Barbarossa, in defence of the
Pope's quarrel. When his holiness gave the ring, he desired the Doge to
throw a similar ring into the sea every year on Ascension Day, in
commemoration of the event.

_Agate._ This stone was frequently cut to represent the human form, and
was occasionally worn in the hat by gallants. In "2 Henry IV." (i. 2)
Falstaff says: "I was never manned with an agate till now"--meaning,
according to Johnson, "had an agate for my man," was waited on by an
agate.

_Carbuncle._ The supernatural lustre of this gem[757] is supposed to be
described in "Titus Andronicus" (ii. 3), where, speaking of the ring on
the finger of Bassianus, Martius says:

"Upon his bloody finger he doth wear
A precious ring, that lightens all the hole,
Which, like a taper in some monument,
Doth shine upon the dead man's earthy cheeks,
And shows the ragged entrails of the pit."

[757] See Sir Thomas Browne's "Vulgar Errors."

In Drayton's "Muses' Elysium" ("Nymphal." ix.) it is thus eulogized:

"That admired mighty stone,
The carbuncle that's named,
Which from it such a flaming light
And radiancy ejecteth,
That in the very darkest night
The eye to it directeth."

Milton, speaking of the cobra, says:

"His head
Crested aloof, and carbuncle his eyes."

John Norton,[758] an alchemist in the reign of Edward IV., wrote a poem
entitled the "Ordinal," or a manual of the chemical art. One of his
projects, we are told, was a bridge of gold over the Thames, crowned
with pinnacles of gold, which, being studded with carbuncles, would
diffuse a blaze of light in the dark. Among the other references to it
given by Shakespeare may be mentioned one in "Henry VIII." (ii. 3),
where the Princess Elizabeth is spoken of as

"a gem
To lighten all this isle."

[758] Jones's "Precious Stones," 1880, p. 62.

And Hamlet (ii. 2) uses the phrase, "With eyes like carbuncles."

_Chrysolite._ This stone was supposed to possess peculiar virtues, and,
according to Simon Maiolus, in his "Dierum Caniculares" (1615-19),
Thetel the Jew, who wrote a book, "De Sculpturiis," mentions one
naturally in the form of a woman, which was potent against fascination
of all kinds. "Othello" (v. 2) thus alludes to this stone in reference
to his wife:

"Nay, had she been true,
If he