English Emblems and the Natural World: Lessons from the Bee

Abstract

In what is perhaps the first English emblem book, Geffrey Whitney devotes an emblem with an especially long poem to a description of bees, in which he expresses his longing to return to his home just as bees return faithfully to the hive. Other English emblematists, such as George Wither, follow his example, and use bees as a fairly common symbol, particularly for the ideal commonwealth. The emblem even appears—in naked form—in John Bunyan’s A Book for Boys and Girls, in which he writes a brief poem about the honey bee, and then adjures, “This Bee an Emblem truly is of sin.” During the same time period as the emblem book flourished in England, the nation saw a surge in beekeeping manuals. In such manuals, apiarists advise on the nature of bees and how to tend them. Fascinatingly, many apiarists contend too that bees—living bees—are emblems. Richard Remnant, for instance, in A Discourse of the Historie of Bees, when describing the characteristics of the queen bee, calls her “an emblem.” John Thorley, in Melisselogia, Or, The Female Monarchy, calls bees “mirrors.” Edward Topsell, as well, in his two tomes on the nature and history of various animals, including the bee, refers specifically to animals, the natural world, and bees as emblems. Indeed, the most famous bee-keeping manual of the early modern period, Charles Butler’s The Feminine Monarchie, contains a dedicatory poem by none other than George Wither. The link between bees and emblems, or rather; bees as emblems, seems undeniable in the early modern period. This paper, therefore, will consider the early modern bee as both emblem and animal. In other words, what happens to emblems of the bee when the bee, as creature, receives increased attention, and what people know about the physiology and nature of the bee changes? Even more, how do emblems influence what apiarists believe and “discover” about bees?

Les emblèmes anglais et le monde naturel : les leçons de l’abeille

L’abeille est-elle un animal ou un symbole ? Dans son livre d’emblèmes, Geoffrey Whitney invente un emblème sur les abeilles et sur son désir revenir dans son pays. Un autre auteur, George Wither, utilise souvent les abeilles comme un symbole dans son livre. En même temps, Richard Remnant (un apiculteur du XVIIe siècle) a nommé l’abeille “un emblème.” Au XVIIe siècle, les abeilles sont des animaux et des symboles. Cependant, les apiculteurs ont continué à apporter davantage d’informations sur des abeilles. Comment les abeilles changent-elles en tant que symboles quand les abeilles changent en tant qu’animaux ?