84 WASPS AND THEIR WAYS 



Wasps," bears testimony to the popular 

 reputation of Vespa. 



The comedy is a satire upon the ten- 

 dency of the time to inordinate lawsuits, 

 and upon the character of the dicasts or 

 jurymen of the period. A dog is tried for 

 stealing a piece of cheese, and the dicasts 

 are habited as wasps. 



**Have a care what you do; they're a 

 sharp, angry crew, quick as wasp's-nest, 

 when urchins molest it," is the significant 

 warning against the horde of dicasts in the 

 second act. 



And the chorus informs us at the 

 end, — 



And still, they say , in foreign lands, do men this 



language hold. 

 There 's nothing like your Attic wasp, so testy and 



so bold." 



In modern times there is no lack of 

 stories of outrages committed by hornets 

 upon inoffensive humankind, though from 

 the hornet's point of view there no doubt 



