shakspeare's drones. 53 



directing your attention to them at a future time to 

 doing so now, when I am merely mentioning the 

 construction of their mouths. The working bees 

 are not, however, the only ones alluded to. In the 

 " Midsummer Night's Dream," when Bottom, the 

 weaver, in the character of an ass, 



" With amiable cheeks and fair large ears," 



is giving orders to his new attendants, he makes use 

 of the following words : — 



" Monsieur Cobweb, good Monsieur, get your weapons in your 

 Land, and kill me a red hip'd humble bee on the top of a thistle ; and 

 good Monsieur, bring me the honey bag." — Act IV. Sc. I. 



Drones are also noticed ; for Shylock, in speaking 

 of his servant Launcelot, (whom he had parted with 

 to Bassanio because he " would him help to waste 

 his borrowed purse,") after describing him as " a 

 huge feeder," " snail slow in profit," adds, " drones 

 hive not with me." But as the drone, the ant, to 

 which the fool in King Lear threatens to send Kent 

 to school, and " injurious wasps," partake of the 

 same general structure, so far as the mouth is con- 

 cerned, I shall not detain you with a description of 

 any minute diiFerence between them. 



Shakspeare, above all other writers, seems to 

 possess a plastic power of moulding every object of 



