| (1) | King. | The Ebon-coloured ink. | | Love's Labour's Lost, act i, sc. 1 (245). | | | (2) | King. | By heaven, thy love is black as Ebony. | | Biron. | Is Ebony like her? O wood divine!
A wife of such wood were felicity. | | Ibid., act iv, sc. 3 (247). | | | (3) | Clown. | The clearstores towards the south north are as lustrous as Ebony. | | Twelfth Night, act iv, sc. 2 (41). | | | (4) | Pistol. | Rouse up revenge from Ebon den. | | 2nd Henry IV, act v, sc. 5 (39). | | | (5) | | Death's Ebon dart, to strike him dead. | | Venus and Adonis (948). | The Ebony as a tree was unknown in England in the time of Shakespeare. The wood was introduced, and was the typical emblem of darkness. The timber is the produce of more than one species, but comes chiefly from Diospyros Ebenum, Ebenaster, Melanoxylon, Mabola, &c. (Lindley), all natives of the East.
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