168 PROC. ENT. SOC. WASH., VOL. 24, NO. 7-8, OCT. -NOV., 1922 



quotation given above shows that the term "greshop" or grass- 

 hopper was the name in general use in England in the 15th cen- 

 tury and practically all ot the early English poets use the word 

 "grasshopper" and not the Latin term "locust," which ap- 

 parently came into popular use during more recent times. 



Although William Cowper is known to have spent a consider- 

 able portion of his life in a madhouse, he has left us, among other 

 delightful works, two fables in verse, namely, "The Nightengale 

 and the Glow-worm," and "The Pineapple and the Bee," which 

 certainly evince no sign of his malady. His masterpiece, "The 

 Task," also contains several apt and charming allusions to 

 insects, while his translations from the Latin of Vincent Bourne 

 have given the English three of the most pleasing and genuine 

 entomological poems in the language. These are dedicated to 

 the Glow-worm, the Silk-worm, and the Cricket respectively. 

 Vincent Bourne was a sub-master at Westminster in the early 

 18th century 1 and is said to have been the best Latin poet of his 

 day. Subsequent to the publication of the "Theater of Agri- 

 culture" 2 in 1600, treating on sericulture, efforts were made 

 from time to time toward the establishment of the craft in Eng- 

 land, and for this reason Bourne doubtless had the opportunity 

 of observing the silk-worm at first-hand. 



In spite of the intensely subjective and even morbid character 

 of many of Shelley's poems, they contain numerous pleasing 

 allusions to insect life, notably to the glow-worm, the moths and 

 fire-flies, as in the following: 



"Carved lamps and chalices, and phials which shone 

 In their own golden beams each like a flower, 

 Out of whose depth a firefly shakes his light 

 Under a cypress in a starless night." 



-The Witch of Atlas. 



Quite different however is this, taken from a satirical drama 

 called "Oedipus, or Swellfoot the Tyrant": 



"The gad-fly was the same which Juno sent 

 To agitate Io, and which Ezechiel mentions 

 That the Lord whistled for out of the mountains 

 Of utmost Ethiopa, to torment 

 Mesopotamian Babylon. The beast 

 Has a loud trumpet like the Scarabee; 

 His crooked tail is barbed with many stings, 

 Each able to make a thousand wounds, and each 

 Immedicable; from his convex eyes 

 He sees fair things in many hideous shapes, 

 And trumpets all his falsehood to the world. 



'Manual of English Literature, Henry Merely, New York, 1879, p. 551 

 2 " Theatre d'Agriculture, d'Olivier de Serres," Vol. II, p. 158, Paris, 1600. 



