PROC. ENT. SOC. WASH., VOL. 24, XO. 7-8, OCT. -NOV., 1922 163 



writing familiarly of forms which remained entirely unnoticed 

 by the earlier bards. For instance, Bryant identifies the plum 

 curculio in 



"That pest of the gardens, the little Turk, 



Who signs with the crescent his wicked work 



And causes the half-grown fruit to fall." 



Thus have the poets indicated unmistakably the advance of 

 the natural sciences through the centuries. It is not my inten- 

 tion to bore you by attempting to review the works of all these 

 writers, but there are certain outstanding facts with regard to a 

 few of them which seem worthy of special comment. Although 

 English poetry really began with Caedmon in the seventh cen- 

 tury, Geoffrey Chaucer, who lived from 1340 to 1400, has been 

 called the "father of English poetry," and an examination of 

 his works discloses some twenty-five references to insects belong- 

 ing to six different orders. Most of these are trivial similitudes, 

 but the following indicates that the ubiquitous flea was a com- 

 mon and familiar pest in England even in the 14th century: 



"Awake thou cook, quod he, god yeve thee sorwe, 

 What eyleth thee to slepe by the morwe? 

 Hastow had fleen al night, or artow drunke?" 



The Manciple s Prologue. 



In an effort to inculcate the virtue of compassion, Chaucer has 

 the following, the simple naivete of which must amuse natural- 

 ists: 



"And han on pore folk compassioun, 

 For lo, the gentil kind of the lioun! 

 For whan a flye offendeth him or byteth, 

 He with his tayl awey the flye smyteth, 

 Al esily; for, of his gentrye, 

 Him deyneth nat to wreke him on a flye, 

 As doth a curre or elles another beste. " 



The Legend of Good Women. 



One can not glance through the series of entomological refer- 

 ences from the works of Edmund Spenser and fail to be impressed 

 with the idea that the poet suffered personally from the on- 

 slaughts of swarms of flies. In the Faerie Queen, for instance, 

 there occur no less than eight such references, of which the fol- 

 lowing is a typical example: 



"And all the chamber filled was with flies, 

 Which buzzed all about, and made such sound 

 That they encumbered all men's ears and eyes." 



According to his biographers, Spenser was born in London, 

 and doubtless spent a considerable portion of his boyhood (the 

 most impressionable part of his life) in that great city. The 



