NOTES BY THE WAY 173 



(see "Henry V."), whereas a colony of bees is an 



absolute democracy; the rulers and governors and 



"officers of sorts" are the workers, the masses, the 



common people. A strict regard to fact also would 



spoil those fairy tapers in "Midsummer Night's 



Dream, " — 



" The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees, 

 And, for night-tapers, crop their waxen thighs, 

 And light them at the fiery glow-wonn's eyes," — 



since it is not wax that bees bear upon their thighs, 

 but pollen, the dust of the flowers, with which bees 

 make their bread. Wax is made from honey. 



The science or the meaning is also a little obscure 

 in this phrase, which occurs in one of the plays : — 



"One heat another heat expels " — 

 as one nail drives out another, or as one love cures 

 another. 



In a passage in " The Tempest " he speaks of the 

 ivy as if it were parasitical, like the mistletoe : — 



" Now, he was 

 The ivy which had hid my princely trunk. 

 And sucked my verdure out on't." 



I believe it is not a fact that the ivy sucks the juice 

 out of the trees it climbs upon, though it may much 

 interfere with their growth. Its aerial rootlets are 

 for support alone, as in the case with all climbers 

 that are not twiners. But this may perhaps be 

 regarded as only a poetic license on the part of 

 Shakespeare; the human ivy he was picturing no 

 doubt fed upon the tree that supported it, whether 

 the real ivy does or not. 



