27 



" Good wax, thy leave, blest be 

 Yon bees, that make these locks of council ! Lovers 

 And men in dangerous bonds pray not alike ; 

 Though forfeiters you cast in prison yet, 

 You clasp young Cupid's tables." — Cymbelinf, iii., 2. 



Shakspere adopted the universal, but incorrect, opinion of his 

 day in the line — 



" Our thighs are packed with wax." — 2 Hennj IV., iv., 4. 



King Henry V., in the camp at Agincourt, urging that there is 

 good in evil, says — 



" There is some soul of goodness in things evil. 

 Would men observingly distil it out ; 

 Thus we may gather honey from the weed." 



Henry V., iv., 1. 



Honey is a favourite expression with poets and Shakspere's use is 

 frequent, although often strained in its application. 



When Romeo is waiting in his cell for the visit of his beloved 

 Juliet, Friar Laurence says — 



" These violent delights have violent ends ;" 

 and adds — 



" the sweetest honey 

 Is loathsome in his o\\n deliciousness. 

 And in the taste confounds the appetite ; 

 Therefore love moderatelj'." — Rnmeo, ii., 5. 



However the word is seldom used in so literal a sense as in the 

 last extracts, and sometimes the metaphor is unduly stretched. 

 Norfolk when speaking of Wolsey says — 



" the king hath found 

 Matter against him, that for ever mars 

 The honey of his language." — Henry VHl., iii., 2. 



Ophelia, bewailing Hamlet's mental aberration, deplores her own 

 in the words — 



" And I of ladies most abject and wretched, 

 That sucked the honey of his music vows." 



Hamlet, iii., 2. 



Romeo utters a similarly worded lament at fair Juliet's tomb — 



"0 my love 1 my wife ! 

 Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, 

 Hath had no power j-et upon thy beauty." 



Bnnieo and Juliet, v., 3. 



