29 



When, like the bee, tolling from every flower 



The virtuous sweets, 



Our thighs are packed with wax, our mouths with honey ; 



We bring it to the hive ; and, like the bees. 



Are murder'd for our pains." — 2 Henry IV., iv., 4. 



Even up to our own times this killing of the bees to obtain the 

 honey was practiced. The poet more than once shows his objection 

 to this useless method by the terms he used, as when Talbot 

 describes the method of the " witch " Joan of Arc in repulsing the 

 British troops — 



" As bees with smoke, and doves with noisome stench. 

 Are from their hives and houses driven away." 



1 Hmrt/ VI., i., 5. 



That Shakspere appreciated the differing characters of bee and 

 wasp we know from various passages. 



When the spirits before Prospero's cell discuss the ways of Venus, 

 Cupid is described as — 



" her waspish-headed son." — 'Tempest., iv., 1. 

 The messenger Silvius used the same term when he gave the 

 letter of Phoebe to Rosalind and foretells the tenour of its contents 

 as if he had himself read them. — 



" I know not the contents ; but, as I guess 

 By the stern brow and waspish action 

 Which she did use as she was writing it, 

 It bears an angry tenour." — As Yon Like It, iv., 3. 



In the scene where Brutus is using his best endeavours to be 

 reconciled to his former bosom friend Cassius, he protests that 

 henceforth — 



" I'll use you for my mirth ; yea, for my laughter. 

 When you are waspish." — JkUks Caesar, iv. 3. 



So also in the wooing of Katherine — 



" Pet. Come, come, you wasp, i' faith you are too angry. 

 Kath. If I be waspish, best beware my sting. 

 Pet. My remedy is then to pluck it out. 

 R(tth. Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies. 

 Pet. Who knows not where a wasp doth wear his sting ? 

 In his tail." — Tamiiuj of the S/irew., ii., 1. 



The same characteristic is used to depict resentful actions. 

 When the wretched Queen Tamore urges her sons to murder she 

 says — 



