[From the “Parliament of Bees;” further Extracts.]
Oberon. Flora, a Bee.
Ober. A female Bee! thy character?
Flo. Flora, Oberon’s Gardener,
Huswive both of herbs and flowers,
To strew thy shrine, and trim thy bowers,
With violets, roses, eglantine,
Daffadown, and blue columbine,
Hath forth the bosom of the Spring
Pluckt this nosegay, which I bring
From Eleusis (mine own shrine)
To thee, a Monarch all divine;
And, as true impost of my grove,
Present it to great Oberon’s love.
Ober. Honey dews refresh thy meads.
Cowslips spring with golden heads;
July-flowers and carnations wear
Leaves double-streakt, with maiden-hair;
May thy lilies taller grow,
Thy violets fuller sweetness owe;
And last of all, may Phœbus love
To kiss thee: and frequent thy grove.
As thou in service true shalt be
Unto our crown and royalty.
Oberon holds a Court, in which he sentences the Wasp, the Drone, and the Humble-bee, for divers offences against the Commonwealth of Bees.
Oberon. Prorex, his Viceroy; and other Bees.
Pro. And whither must these flies be sent?
Ober. To Everlasting Banishment.
Underneath two hanging rocks
(Where babbling Echo sits and mocks
Poor travellers) there lies a grove,
With whom the Sun’s so out of love,
He never smiles on’t: pale Despair
Calls it his Monarchal Chair.
Fruit half-ripe hang rivell’d and shrunk
On broken arms, torn from the trunk:
The moorish pools stand empty, left
By water, stol’n by cunning theft
To hollow banks, driven out by snakes,
Adders, and newts, that man these lakes:
The mossy leaves, half-swelter’d, serv’d
As beds for vermin hunger sterv’d:
The woods are yew-trees, bent and broke
By whirlwinds; here and there an oak,
Half-cleft with thunder. To this grove
We banish them.
Culprits. Some mercy, Jove!
Ober. You should have cried so in your youth,
When Chronos and his daughter Truth
Sojourn’d among you; when you spent
Whole years in riotous merriment,
Thrusting poor Bees out of their hives,
Seizing both honey, wax, and lives.
You should have call’d for mercy when
You impaled common blossoms; when,
Instead of giving poor Bees food,
You ate their flesh, and drank their blood.
Fairies, thrust ’em to their fate.
Oberon then confirms Prorex in his Government; and breaks up Session.
Ober.——now adieu!
Prorex shall again renew
His potent reign: the massy world,
Which in glittering orbs is hurl’d
About the poles, be Lord of: we
Only reserve our Royalty—
Field Music.[182] Oberon must away;
For us our gentle Fairies stay:
In the mountains and the rocks
We’ll hunt the Grey, and little Fox,
Who destroy our lambs at feed,
And spoil the nests where turtles feed.