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Sunday, April 07, 2024

Shakespeare and Bees, Pt. 2.

In this series:

Now we return to our anonymous author on “Shakespeare and Bees”.1 Here the emphasis of the passages is on the delightful product of the bees: honey.


When Romeo is awaiting the arrival of Juliet, Friar Laurence, in his cell, endeavours to solace him in the following words:-

These violent delights have violent ends;

adding :-

The sweetest honey

Is loathsome in his own deliciousness,

And in the taste confounds the appetite;

Therefore , love moderately.

        Act II., Scene 6.

In Henry VIII. Norfolk says, in speaking of Cardinal Wolsey:-

The King hath found

Matter against him that for ever mars

The honey of his language.

        Act III., Scene 2.

In Hamlet we find Ophelia deploring her condition after the remark ' To a nunnery go ' in these words :-

And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,

That suck'd the honey of his music vows.

        Act III., Scene 1 .

The same word is also employed by Romeo:-

Oh, my love! my wife!

Death that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,

Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.

        Act V. , Scene 3.

When we bear in mind the regularity of combs and the close arrangement of the cells, the words of Prospero, in his reply to Caliban, will be better understood:-

Thou shalt be pinch'd

As thick as honey-combs, each pinch more stinging

Than bees that made them.

        Tempest, Act I. , Scene 2.

The sting is above alluded to, and also occurs in the following:-

Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing,

Till he hath lost his honey and his sting:

And being once subdued in armed tail,

Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail.

        Troilus and Cressida, Act V., Scene 11 .

This passage would lead us to infer that Shakespeare knew that bees could not withdraw their stings from the wound. In Julius Cæsar we find the following dialogue:-

Cas. The posture of your blows are yet unknown;

But for your words, they rob the Hybla bees,

And leave them honeyless.

Ant. Not stingless too.

Bru. Oh, yes, and soundless too;

For you have stol'n their buzzing, Antony,

And, very wisely, threat before you sting.

        Act V. , Scene 1.

The loss of the queen is thus described: -

The commons, like a hive of angry bees,

That want their leader, scatter up and down .

        2 Henry VI., Act III. , Scene 2.

He did not seem to know the use of drones, for he says :-

Drones suck not eagles' blood, but rob beehives.

        2 Henry VI., Act IV., Scene 1.

As mentioned in Pt. 1, most of medieval and Tudor writing on bees is taken from the Natural History of Pliny the Elder. Shakespeare's knowledge that constituents of bees-wax are carried on the back legs of bees does not seem to feature in any classical author, however, and may have been the observation of another more modern eye. As for wasps attacking bee-hives, this is mentioned in Pliny, but not, that I have yet found, the fact that they do so in order to feed on the honey. Again, this may come from a more modern source — perhaps an expert bee-keeper.


The following passage from The Two Gentlemen of Verona will show that Shakespeare had observed the fights that took place between wasps and bees:-

Injurious wasps! to feed on such sweet honey,

And kill the bees, that yield it, with your stings!

        Act I., Scene 2.

The honey boys steal from the humble-bees,

And for night tapers, crop their waxen thighs.'

        Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III ., Scene 2.

The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,

Were still at odds, being but three.

        Love's Labour Lost, Act III., Scene 1.

How well a worn-out worker is illustrated in the following:-

Since I nor wax, nor honey can bring home,

I quickly were dissolved from my hive,

To give some labourers room.

        All's Well that Ends Well, Act I. , Scene 2.


Actually, to know Pliny, here, is to know that this passage describes the ejection of a drone.


They surfeited with honey, and began

To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a

Little more than a little is by much too much .

        2 Henry IV., Act IV., Scene 4.

Like one besotted on your sweet delights :

You have the honey still, but these the gall

        Troilus and Cressida, Act II., Scene 2.

'We would purge the land of these drones

that rob the bee of her honey.'

        Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act II., Scene 1.

These are a few of the passages in which bees and honey are referred to, but there a good many more. Indeed, from the frequent allusions made by Shakespeare, this insect must have been a favourite with him, and it certainly furnished him with numerous similes ; and, not content with the word 'honey,' both in a literal and metaphorical sense , he has interwoven it in several endearing epithets, such as 'honey love,' 'honey nurse;' and in Julius Caesar we find the following curious expression:-

Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber.

        Act II., Scene 1.

Many other poets have alluded to bees and honey, but none so frequently as Shakespeare.




1British Bee Journal, Bee-Keepers' Record and Advisor. Volume IX (1891).


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