Where christall springes doe gushe out of the rockes.
There, fertile fieldes; there, meadowes large extende:
There, store of grayne: with water, and with wood.
And, in this place, your goulden time you spende,
Vnto your praise, and to your countries good:
This is the hiue; your tennaunts, are the bees:
And in the same, haue places by degrees.”
By the side of these stanzas let us place for comparison what Shakespeare wrote on the same subject,—the Commonwealth of Bees,—and I am persuaded we shall perceive much similarity of thought, if not of expression. In Henry V. (act i. sc. 2, l. 178, vol. iv. p. 502), the Duke of Exeter and the Archbishop of Canterbury enter upon an argument respecting a well-governed state,—
“Exe. While that the armed hand doth fight abroad,
The advised head defends itself at home;