A Bee-hive . 
409 
that tarried at home receyve readily, as easing their backes of so great 
burthens.” (Page 262.) 
Virgil’s fanciful description of the bees’ labours was 
possibly the authority from which both Lyly and Shak- 
speare quoted:— 
“ They only have a common progeny. 
The mansions of a city shared of all, 
And under noble statutes pass their life ; 
And they alone a native country know, 
And settled household gods ; and mindful of 
The coming winter, in the summer time 
Engage in toil, and for the common stock 
Store up their gains. For some watch o’er the food, 
And by a covenant agreed upon 
Are in the fields employed; others, within 
TIT enclosures of their homes, the tear 
Of daffodil, and clammy from the bark, 
A gum, the first foundations of the combs, 
Lay down; then hang they up th* adhesive wax; 
Others the nation’s hope, the full-grown young 
Lead forth; others all virgin honeys pack, 
And with the crystal nectar stretch the cells. 
There are to whom hath fallen out by lot 
The sentry at the gates; and in their turn 
They watch the waters and the clouds of heaven ; 
Or they the burdens of those coming in 
Receive, or in battalion formed, the drones, 
A lazy cattle, from the cribs fend off: 
Work glows, and th’ odorous honeys smell of thyme. 
* * $ * * 
Unto the aged are the towns a charge, 
To wall the combs, and mould their artful roofs : 
But, jaded, late at night betake them home 
The younger, loaded on their legs with thyme. 
And browse they upon arbutes everywhere, 
And blue-grey willows, and the cassia, 
And blushing crocus, and the gummy lime. 
And rust-hued martagons. With all is one 
The rest from work, with all is one the toil.” 
(Georgies, book iv., Singleton’s trans.) 
