ATITfJE BEES. HO 



his father's palace, a swarm of Bees flew about his cradle, 

 and some of them even crept in and out at his mouth, which 

 was open ; and at last mounted up into the air so high, that 

 they quite vanished out of sight. This," concludes the 

 Reverend Alban, "was esteemed a presage of future great- 

 ness and eloquence."^ 



Another instance is mentioned in the Feminine Monar- 

 chic, printed at Oxford in 1634, p. 22. 



"When Ludovicus Vives was sent by Cardinal Wolsey 

 to Oxford, there to be a public professor of Rhetoric, being 

 placed in the College of Bees, he was welcomed thither by a 

 swarm of Bees; which sweet creatures, to signifie the incom- 

 parable sweetnesse of his eloquence, settled themselves over 

 his head, under the leads of his study, where they have con- 

 tinued to this day How sweetly did all things then 



accord, when in this neat !J.(>u(Tai(>v newly consecrated to the 

 Muses, the Muses' sweetest favorite was thus honoured by 

 the Muses' birds. "^ 



Moufet, in his Theater of Insects, and Topsel, in almost 

 the same words in his History of Four-footed Beasts and 

 Serpents, gives the following list of remarkable omens 

 drawn from Bees: 



" Whereas the most high God did create all other crea- 

 tures for our use; so especially the Bees, not only that as 

 mistresses they might hold forth to us a patern of politick 

 and ceconomic virtues, and inform our understanding ; but 

 that they might be able as extraordinary foretellers, to fore- 

 shew the success and event of things to come ; for in the 

 years 90, 98, 113, 208, before the birth of Christ, when as 

 miglity huge swarms of Bees did settle in the chief market- 

 place, and in the beast-market upon private citizens' houses, 

 and on the temple of Mars, there were at that time strata- 

 gems of enemies against Rome, wherewith the whole state 

 was like to be surprised and destroyed. In the reign of 

 Severus, the Bees njade combes in his military ensigns, and 

 especially in the camp of Niger. Divers wars upon this 

 ensued between both the parties of Severus and Niger, and 

 battels of doubtful event, while at length the Severian fac- 

 tion prevailed. The statues also of Antonius Pius placed 



1 Lives of the Saints, xii. 106. 



2 Quot. in N. and Q., x, 500. This story is not in tlie Fern. Jlvn- 

 archie of 1609, printed for Jos. Barnes. 



