Natural history in Shakespeare's time : being extracts illustrative of the subject as he knew it / Made by H. W. Seager, M. B., &c. Also pictures thereunto belonging.

Seager, H. W. (Herbert West), 1848-

Date:: 1896

Credit: Natural history in Shakespeare's time : being extracts illustrative of the subject as he knew it / Made by H. W. Seager, M. B., &c. Also pictures thereunto belonging. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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$themselves by their own doom for to die by the wound of their own sting. Also Bees sit upon the hives and suck the superfluity that is in honey-combs. And it is said that if they did not so, thereof should attercops [i.e., spiders] be gendered of that superfluity, and the Bees should die. Barthokmezv {Berthelct), bk. xii. § 4.. If the night falleth upon them in their journey, then they lie upright to defend their wings from rain and from dew, that they may in the morrow tide fly the more swifter to their work with their wings dry and able to fly. And they ordain watches after the manner of castles, and rest all night until it be day, till one Bee wake them all with twice buzzing or thrice, or with some manner trumping: then they fly all, if the day be fair on the morrow. And the Bees that bringeth and beareth what is needful, dread blasts of wind, and fly therefore low by the ground when they be charged, lest they be letted with some manner of blasts ; and chargeth themself sometime with gravel or with small stones, that they may be the more steadfast against blasts of wind by heaviness of the stones. Bees be com- forted with smell of crabs, if they be sodden nigh them. They die all with oil as such round beasts do, and namely if the head be anointed ; and such beasts, set in the sun, quicken again if they be bespring with vinegar. And Bees that make honey slay the males that grieve them, and evil kings, that rule them not aright, but only eat too much honey. And no creature is more wreakful, nor more fervent to take wreak than is the Bee when he is wroth ; therefore a multitude of the host of Bees throweth down great hedges when they be compelled to withstand them that destroy their honey. And Bees be pleased with harmony and melody of sound of song, and with flapping of hands and beating of basins. And therefore with beating of basins, tinging and tinking of timbers, they be com- forted and called to the hives. Uitl, bk. xviii. § 12. Where the Bee can suck no honey, she leaveth her sting behind. Lilly, Sappho and Phaon (Prologue). Flies that die on the honeysuckle become poison to Bees. Ibid., ii. 4. A Bee's sting pricketh deepest, when it is fullest of honey. ibid,^ iv. 4.$