CARBUNCLE.] NATURAL HISTORY. 53 



maketh men insuperable, and maketh a man gracious and 

 steadfast, and victor, wise and ready and cunning in plea, 

 and accordeth friends, and quencheth thirst in the mouth. 



Bartholomew (Bertkelet], bk. xvi. < 17. 



Caraway. 



We will eat a last year's pippin of my own grafting, with a dish of 

 caraways, and so forth. 



ii. KING HENRY IV., v. 3, 3. 



[Whether " Caraways " is a kind of apple, or the well-known 

 seeds, the learned commentators on Shakespeare have left un- 

 decided. To the many references in Steevens* Shakespeare may 

 be added Dekker>s " Bankrupt's Banquet " and HeywootPs " Fair 

 Maid of the West," in both which places the seeds are alluded 

 to. Possibly Caraway-seeds were to be eaten with the pippin 

 to correct its crudity, for Gerard says that they are very good 

 for the stomach, help digestion, assuage and dissolve all windi- 

 ness (" Herbal," s.v.). 



Sir John Neville at the marriage of his daughter in 1530 

 provided among a great quantity of other spices " I pound of 

 Caraways" for one shilling.] 



Carbuncle. 



A carbuncle entire, as big as thou art, 

 Were not so rich a jewel. 



CORIOLANUS, i. 4, 55. 



A CARBUNCLE is a precious stone, and shineth as fire, 

 hose shining is not overcome by night. And the kinds 

 .ereof be twelve ; and is gendered in Lybia among the 

 roglodytes. Among these twelve manner kinds of car- 

 ncles, those anthracites be the best that have the colour 

 fire, and be beclipped [enclosed] in a white vein ; which 

 have this property if it be thrown in fire, it is quenched 

 as it were among dead coals, and burneth if water be 

 thrown thereon. And this precious stone is of great price 

 without comparison in respect of other. It is said that it 

 withstandeth graving. And if it be sometime graved and 

 printed with wax, it taketh with him a part of the wax, as 

 it were with biting of a beast. 



Bartholomew (Berth elet\ bk. xvi. 26. 



