The civil citizens kneading up the honey,
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,
The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum.
Delivering o’er to executors pale
The lazy yawning drone.”
Again, in the Troilus and Cressida (act i. sc. 3, l. 75, vol. vi. p. 144), Ulysses draws from the unsuitableness of a general, as he terms the ruling bee, over a hive, an explanation of the mischiefs from an incompetent commander,—
“Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down,
And the great Hector’s sword had lack’d a master,
But for these instances.