412 
The Animal-Lore of ShaJcsjoeares Time. 
Before the discovery of spermaceti, wax procured 
from the hive of the bee was a most important article of 
commerce. Jack Cade refers to its use in sealing letters 
and documents:— 
“ They say the bee stings, but a say ’tis the bees’ wax; for I 
did but seal once to a thing, and I was never mine own man since.” 
(2 Iienry VI., iv. 2, 88.) 
Imogen makes fond delay over a letter from Leonatus :— 
“ Good wax, thy leave. Blest be 
You bees that make these locks of counsel. Lovers 
And men in dangerous bonds pray not alike : 
Though forfeiters you cast in prison, yet 
You clasp young Cupid’s tables.” 
(Cymbeline , iii. 2, 35.) 
The number of candles required for the various 
religious services must have been considerable. Wax 
must have therefore been in great demand, though tallow 
candles were probably generally used for household pur¬ 
poses. According to Marlowe, wax was put to another use. 
Describing how Hero held aloft a flaming torch to guide 
her lover in his perilous passage, he writes:— 
" Sweet torch, true glass of our society! 
What man does good, but he consumes thereby ? 
But thou wert loved for good, held high, given show ; 
Poor virtue loathed for good, obscured, held low: 
Do good, be pined, be deedless good, disgraced; 
Unless we feed on men, we let them fast. 
Yet Hero with these thoughts her torch did spend : 
When bees make wax, nature doth not intend 
It should be made a torch ; but we, that know 
The proper virtue of it, make it so, 
And when ’tis made, we light it.” 
( Hero and Leander , 6th sestiad.) 
Skakspeare illustrates by the same comparison the idea 
that virtue is wasted that is not diffused:— 
“ Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, 
Hot light them for themselves; for if our virtues 
