28 



"Honey" is even used to intensify the meaning in numerous 

 descriptive phrases, as when Brutus bids the boy attendant Lucius, 

 who was fast asleep, to — 



" Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber." — Julius Caesar, ii., 1. 



The close setting of the bees' cells and the stinging power are 

 both used to increase the effect of the words of Prospero in reply to 

 Caliban's imprecations — 



'• Thou shalt be pinch'd 

 As thick as honey-combs : each pinch more stinging 

 Than bees that made 'em."~Tempest, i., 2. 



That the poet was aware the bee lost its sting in the wound, the 

 words of Pandarus show — 



" Full merrily the humble bee doth sing, 

 Till she hath lost her honey and her sting ; 

 And being once subdued in armed tail. 

 Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail." 



Trnilus and Cressida, v., 12. 



So in the sarcasm of Brutus and Cassius against Antony the 

 same idea is uttered — 



" Cas. The posture of your blows are yet unknown ; 

 But for your words, they rob the Hybla bees, 

 And leave them honey-less. 

 Ant. Not sting-less too. 

 Bru. ! yes, and soundless too ; 

 For you have stolen their buzzing, Antony, 

 And very wisely threat before you sting." 



Julius Caesar, v., 1. 



So easy was it to find simile and metaphor in the economy of the 

 bee, that in one scene in 2 Henry IV., it is mentioned twice. 

 First, when the King fears the future of his son from his past bad 

 habits, he says— 



" Tis seldom when the bee doth leave her comb 

 In the dead carrion." — .'^ Henry IV., iv., 1. 



[Was the story of Samson and the Lion the suggestion of this ?] 

 and later on when he supposes a sinister motive for the removal of 

 the crown from his pillow — - 



" How quickly nature falls into revolt, 

 When gold becomes her object. 

 For this the foolish, over careful fathers 

 Have broke their .bleeps with thought, their brains with care, 



