407 
An Omission in Shakspeare. 
would be perfectly useless to them, as they feed on soft, 
generally animal, substances. But more recent investi¬ 
gations have reinstated the ant in its former position of 
instructor. It is true that in cold countries ants do not 
collect grain; but in the East, whence these stories had 
their origin, the warmth of the winter renders hyber¬ 
nation impossible, and a supply of food consequently 
necessary. Further, though the grains of corn or rice 
are too hard for the ants’ mandibles, they become 
softened by being kept in the moist underground 
granaries. 
Mr. Patterson considers it strange that the ant is 
not oftener noticed by Shakspeare, when other insects 
not more attractive are so frequently introduced. It 
may be that the qualities which, rightly or wrongly, 
have been attributed to this insect were not those on 
which Shakspeare cared to dwell. Mr. H. Green, in his 
Shakspeare and the Emblem Writers, 1870 (p. 147), con¬ 
siders that the dramatist has been guilty of a great 
omission in neglecting to point out the value of sustained 
persevering work. He remarks :— 
“Industry, diligence, with their attendant advantages,—negligence, 
idleness, with their disadvantages,—are scarcely alluded to, and but in¬ 
cidentally praised or blamed.. . . The idea is in some degree approached 
in the Chorus of Henry V. (act i.), and the triumph of industry may 
also he inferred from the marriage blessing which Ceres pronounces in 
the Tempest (iv. 1. 110), yet for labour, industry, diligence, or by 
whatever name the virtue of steady exertion may he known, there is 
scarcely a word of praise in Shakspeare’s abundant vocabulary, and of 
its effects no clear description.” 
“ The Bee,” writes Batman, “ is called apis, and is a little short 
incecti, with many feete, and among all flyes with round 
bodyes and so shapen he beareth the price [prize] in 
manye things, hugenesee of wit rewardeth him in littlenesse of body, 
and though he might be accounted among flyeing flyes, yet for he usetli 
feete, and goeth upon them, he may rightfully be accounted among 
beastes that goe on grounde.” (TJppon Bartholome, 1582.) 
