562 Insects mentioned in Shakspeare. 



is, never kill a bee ; and who recommends the stupifying the 

 bees by burnt puff-ball, when it is necessary to make any 

 alteration in the hive. 



Art. IT. — Letters on the Natural History of the Insects mentioned 

 in Shakspeare s Plays ; with Incidental Notices of the Entomolo- 

 gy of Ireland. By Robert Patterson, Treasurer of the Natural 

 History Society of Belfast. London: Orr and Co.; 1838; pp. 270. 

 12mo., with woodcuts. 



There are, we believe, some worshippers of our great bard, 

 who conceive that because a number of passages occur in his 

 plays having a legal turn of expression, he must have been 

 brought up in an attorney's office. But the naturalist finds 

 just as ample proof of a long study of nature in the pages of 

 the bard of Avon ; so that this line of argument only tends to 

 prove that his was a mind of the keenest observation ; thus, 

 whilst Milton and the other poets had strung together in their 

 descriptions the blossoms of spring and the flowers of sum- 

 mer, Shakspeare has placed in one group those only which 

 may be found in bloom at the same time. On carefully pe- 

 rusing the plays of Shakspeare, the number of passages found 

 by Mr. Patterson relating to natural objects, occupied "one 

 hundred closely written pages of letter paper." From these 

 he has selected those relating to insects, and has contrived to 

 form them into a very pleasing little volume, which will be 

 sure of a welcome, not only from the lovers of Shakspeare, 

 who will find many obscure passages elucidated by the natu- 

 ral history of the insects, but also from the entomologist, who 

 will be happy to see the objects of his pursuits in such a de- 

 lightful garb. The manner in which the various passages are 

 treated is very agreeable ; and from the number of illustra- 

 tions, some of which, (Queen Mab's triumph for instance), are 

 very elegant, we should surmise that this will become a po- 

 pular work. There are numerous original notices interspersed, 

 one of which we have quoted below, as it bears upon the sub- 

 ject of one of Dr. Weissenborn's late papers communicated 

 to this Magazine. 



" On the site where the new wing of the Royal Academical Institution 

 [of Belfast] now stands, my friend, the Rev. H. Montgomery, LL.D., was 

 in the habit of raising a few culinary vegetables. In the spring of 1830, 

 he sowed, at the usual period, a considerable quantity of parsley seed ; it 

 yielded no return. The ground was raked over again, and fresh seed sown, 

 but with no better success. Between March and August the operation was 

 repeated four times, the ground being twice dug over, but not a leaf ap- 



