And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber; And lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody? A watch-case, or a common 'larum-bell? "Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow, O polished perturbation! golden care! Sir Richard Blackmore, too; Creation, b. iv.: "Familiar horrors haunt the monarch's head, And thoughts, ill-boding, from the downy bed Chase gentle sleep; black cares the soul infest, And broider'd stars adorn a troubled breast." "Morpheus! the humble god that dwells In cottages and smoky cells, Hates gilded roofs and beds of down, And, though he fears no prince's frown, Flies from the circle of a crown." Sir John Denham, Song. Young's lines are well known: "Tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy Sleep! He like the world, his ready visit pays Where Fortune smiles; the wretched he forsakes; Swift on his downy pinion flies from woe, And lights on lids unsullied with a tear.' The Complaint, Night i. 1-5. "No frowning care yon bless'd apartment sees, There sleep retires, and finds a couch of ease. Kind dreams, that fly remorse, and pamper'd wealth, There shed the smiles of innocence and health." Savage, Wanderer, c. 1. A place of ambushment around the folds, Nor does he prowl about the herds by night: A fiercer pang subdues him. Craven deer And flying harts now both among the hounds, And round the homesteads wander. Now the brood Of the illimitable sea, and all the tribe Of swimming [creatures] on the farthest strand, Like shipwrecked corses, washes up the wave; Against their wont to rivers fly the seals; And dies, within his winding-shroud ensconced 750 In vain, the adder, and with scales erect The thunder-stricken hydri. E'en to birds Beneath the lofty cloud their life they leave. Unrighteous is the air, and, headlong fallen, Moreo'er, nor now avails it that their food Is changed, and sought prescriptions harm: the chiefs Have yielded,-Chiron son of Phillyra, Melampus, too, of Amythaon sprung. Storms wan Tisiphone, and, into light Let loose from Stygian murk, before her drives 760 Diseases and Affright; and, day by day Uprising higher, she her rav'nous head Advances. With the bleating of the flocks, And frequent bellowings, streams, and withered banks, And sloping hills, resound. And now by troops She havoc deals, and in the very stalls Piles corses, melted with the loathsome bane ; Till in the earth to hide them, and in pits To hearse, they learn. For neither in the hides Was service, nor the flesh can any [swain] Or cleanse in waters, or with flame o'er The mould'ring woof, have they the pow'r. If any had the loathsome garbs essayed, Thereafter long, when, as he pauses still, His tainted joints the sacred fire would eat. 778. "As he pauses;" i. e., to throw off the infected dress. BOOK NEXT the ethereal honey's heav'nly boons Will I pursue: this portion, too, do thou Regard, Mæcenas. Shows of pigmy things, That claim thy wonder,-both the highsouled chiefs, And habits, and pursuits, and clans, and wars, Of a whole nation will I duly sing. In the first place, a resting-spot and post Must for thy bees be sought, whereto may lie II IV. | For all they widely waste, and e'en [the bees], While flying, in their mouth they bear away, moss, And heat dissolves the same, to fluid turned : Each force for bees alike is to be feared. 50 Nor in their homes in vain with rivalry The narrow vents with wax do they besmear, And close the rims with fucus and with flowers, And, gathered for these very services, A cement keep, more glutinous than e'en The birdlime and the Phrygian Ida's pitch. Yea oftentimes in excavated shrouds, (If true is rumor,) underneath the earth Their household have they hugged, and deep Been found both in the vaulted pumicerocks, 60 And grot of [some] heart-eaten tree. Do thou, However, both with glossy mud anoint Their chinky chambers, warming them around, And throw across them thin [supplies of] leaves. Nor overnear their homes the yew allow, The vaulted rocks with verberation ring, For what remains, what time the golden Sun 71 53. Fucus;" i. e., "propolis." 79. Milton has a very beautiful simile of bees issuing from the hive on a fine day; P. L., b. i.: "As bees In spring-time, when the Sun with Taurus rides, Thomson is also highly successful; Spring, 508: They of themselves within their inmost cots "Here their delicious task the fervent bees, And float amid the liquid noon: Gray, Ode to Spring. "Some to the sun their insect wings unfold, Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold; 92. "So swarming bees that, on a summer's day In airy rings and wild meanders play, Charm'd with the brazen sound, their wanderings (For many a time on monarchs twain a feud Hath stalked with mighty hubbub, and forthwith The spirits of the commons and their hearts Throbbing for war, we may afar foreknow; For those that loiter does the warlike bray Of grating bronze upbraid, and there is heard A sound, that apes the trumpet's broken blasts :) 100 Then in commotion they together flock, And sparkle with their pinions, and their stings Point sharp upon their beaks, and fit their thews, And round the king, and at the very tent Of their commander, muster they in crowds, And challenge with their lusty cries the foe. So, when they have secured a cloudless spring, And open plains, they sally from the gates; In heav'n on high 'tis battle; booms a din; Huddled they cluster in a mighty ball 110 And headlong drop:- -no thicker in the air The hail, nor from the shaken holm pours down So thick [a show'r] of mast. [The kings] themselves Throughout the central ranks, with noted wings, Wield giant spirits in a puny breast; Or these, or those, hath forced to show their backs, none seems satisfactory, and therefore a different view of the part which is to be considered elliptical, is here taken. According to this, the embarassment attending que in continuoque appears to be removed; while the objection, fairly raised by Wagner against the views of Heyne and Voss, is in a great measure avoided. And again: "In a small room large heart enclosed." And Shakespeare, K. H. V., ii. Chorus: "O England!-model to thy inward greatness, Like little body with a mighty heart." "I never saw Such noble fury in so poor a thing." Cymbeline, v. 5. Milton in the same way, in Samson Agonistes: "Go, baffled coward! lest I run upon thee, Though in these chains, bulk without spirit vast." Dryden, in speaking of the dismay of the Dutch fleet, inverts the idea: "Faint sweats all down their mighty members run; Vast bulks which little souls but ill supply." Annus Mirabilis, 70. (Lest in his waste he mischief thee,) consign To death; allow the nobler in the court, Untenanted, to reign. The one will prove With gold-encrusted spangles in a blaze. For twain the species be: this nobler [king] Both in his guise distinguished, brilliant, too, With ruddy scales; that other, grim with sloth, 130 And trailing, base, a breadth of paunch. As twain The monarchs' figures, so the commons' frames. For some in hideousness are rough; as From lofty mountains bringing thyme and | And in the autumn fruits; and when e'en pines, still Plant them himself far-wide around their Drear winter with its cold would brast the homes; Himself let chafe his hand with galling toil; Himself set fruiting saplings in the ground, And loving waters o'er them draw in rills. And truly, towards my travail's farthest bound 162 Were I not now my canvas drawing in, rose; And how the endive-plants in runnels quaffed Might take delight, and banks with parsley green; And, writhing through the grass, the cucumber 170 Swell out into a paunch. Nor daffodil, Nor fit for cattle, nor for Bacchus meet. The wealth of monarchs in his mind he matched ; And, late at night returning to his home, His boards he cumbered with unpurchased cates. The first was he in spring to cull the rose, 161. Or, if irriget be taken in its secondary, and imbres in its primary sense: "And sprinkle over them the loving showers." Ben Jonson. 66 185. My mind's a kingdom." "For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich." Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, iv. 3. "I want not, for my mind affordeth wealth." Robert Greene, The Hermit's Verses. A true right king, that dares doe aught, save wrong, "This, Lucio, is a king, Marston, Antonio and Mellida, P. 1, iv. 4. With pregnant bees, and many a swarm, was first To overflow; and from squeezed combs to force The frothing honeys. He had limes and pine Of fullest yield; and with as many fruits And black-thorn stocks, already bearing plums, And plane, to topers now affording shade. But these, in sooth, do I, shut out by bounds Too strict, pass over, and to other [bards] To be recorded after me I leave. Now come, what instincts Jove himself to bees Assigned, will I unfold; for what reward The Curets' tuneful sounds and clanking bronze 210 They, tracing, fed the monarch of the sky Beneath the grot of Dicte. They alone Have sons in common, city-mansions shared 192. See note on Geo. ii. v. 368. 201. 213, &c. "The teeming autumn, big with rich increase, Bearing the wanton burden of the prime." Shakespeare, Sonnet 97. "For so work the honey bees; Creatures that, by a rule of nature, teach The act of order to a people's kingdom. They have a king and officers of sorts: Where some, like magistrates, correct at home; Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad; Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings, Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds; Which pillage they with merry march bring home Shakespeare, K. H. V., i. 2. |