408 
The Animal-Lore of Shahspeare's Time. 
If Shakspeare lias little to say in praise of the ant, 
he makes up for this want of appreciation by his 
numerous references to the bee. The possibility of 
obtaining benefit from apparently adverse circumstances 
is compared by Henry V. to the labours of this insect:— 
“ There is some soul of goodness in things evil, 
Would men observingly distil it out: 
Thus may we gather honey from the weed.” 
(Henry V., iv. 1, 4.) 
The poetical description of the economy of a bee-hive 
in the same play (act i. sc. 2) is not necessarily drawn 
from personal observation. There is a very similar 
account of these small creatures in the Euphues of Lyly. 
Lyly was in his turn apparently indebted to Virgil, and 
other classical writers, for his information. Fidus thus 
addressed Euphues and his friend Fhilautus :— 
“ Gentlemen, I have for ye space of this twenty yeares dwelt in 
this place, taking no delight in any thing but only in keeping my 
bees, and marking them, and this I finde, which had I not seene, I 
should hardly have beleeved. That they use as great wit by indution, 
and arte by workmanship, as ever man hath, or can, using betweene 
themselves no lesse justice than wisdome, and yet not so much 
wisdome as majestie: insomuch as thou wouldest thinke, that they 
were a kinde of people, a common wealth for Plato. . . . They call a 
Parliament, wher-in they consult, for lawes, statutes, penalties, chusing 
officers, and creating their king, not by affection but reason, not by 
the greater part, but ye better. . . . Every one hath his office, some 
trimming the honny, some working the wax, one framing hives, 
an other the combes, and that so artificially, that Dedalus could not 
with greater arte or excellencie, better dispose the orders, measures, 
proportions, distinctions, joynts and circles. Divers hew, others polish, 
all are carefull to doe their worke so strongly as they may resist the 
craft of such drones, as seek to live by their labours, which maketh 
them to keepe watch and warde, as lyving in a campe to others, and as 
in a court to themselves. . . . When they go forth to work, they marke 
the wind, the clouds, and whatsoever doth threaten either their ruine, 
or raign, and having gathered out of every flower honny they return 
loden in their mouthes, thighs, wings, and all the bodye, whome they 
