414 The Animal-Lore of ShaJcsjpeare’s Time . 
which bees would talk with, could they talk; the very air seems 
replete with humming and buzzing melodies while we read them. 
Surely bees were never so be-rhymed before/ ” {Day's Works , part i. 
introduction, p. 28.) 
In this work Day brings a serious charge against the 
humble-bee:— 
“ A bill preferd against a publique wrong, 
The surly humble bee, who hath too long 
Liv’d like an out-law and will neither pay 
Money nor waxe, do service nor obey; 
But like a fellon, coucht under a weed. 
Watches advantage to make boot and feed 
Upon the top-branch blossomes, and by stealth 
Makes dangerous inroads on your common-wealth; 
Bobs the day-labourer of his golden prize 
And sends him weeping home with emptie thighes. 
Thus, like a theefe, he flies ore hill and downe 
And out-law-like doth challenge as his owne 
Your highnes due ; nay, pyratick detaines 
The waxen fleet sailing upon your plaines.” 
Wasp. The Wasp is next arraigned:— 
“ Speaker. A bill preferd against the waspe ; a flie 
Who merchant-like under pretence to buy 
Makes bold to borrow, and paies too. 
Prorex. But when ? 
Speaker. Why, ad kalendas Grascas; never then.” 
t( The wasp,” writes Topsell, “is a kinde of insect, that is swift, 
living in routs and companies together, having somewhat a long body 
encircled, with four membranous wings (whereof the two former are 
the greatest), without bloud, stinged inwardly, having also six feet, 
and a yellow colour, somewhat glistering like gold, garnished with 
divers black spots all over the body in form of a triangle.” 
Topsell seems to have made an exception in favour of 
the wasp, and to have endeavoured to test by personal 
observation the truth of the information he imparts :— 
“ I think that all the whole pack of them have stings in general, 
although I am not ignorant that some authors hold the contrary, 
affirming that the breeding female wasps do want them: but thus 
