Has, when I read them, envied her desert; And wept and sigh’d to think that he should be To her so constant, yet not pity me. * * * * * Porrex, Vice Roy of Bees under King Oberon, describes his large prerogative. To Us (who, warranted by Oberon’s love. Write Ourself _Master Bee_), both field and grove, Garden and orchard, lawns and flowery meads, (Where the amorous wind plays with the golden heads Of wanton cowslips, daisies in their prime, Sun-loving marigolds; the blossom’d thyme, The blue-vein’d violets and the damask rose; The stately lily, Mistress of all those); Are allow’d and giv’n, by Oberon’s free areed, Pasture for me, and all my swarms to feed. * * * * * ------------the doings, The births, the wars, the wooings, of these pretty little winged creatures are with continued liveliness portrayed throughout the whole of this curious old Drama, in words which Bees would talk with, could they talk; the very air seems replete with humming and buzzing melodies, while we read them. Surely Bees were never so be-rhymed before. C. L. [39] Prettily pilfered from the sweet passage in the Midsummer Night’s Dream, where Helena recounts to Hermia their school-days’ friendship: We, Hermia, like two artificial Gods, Created with our needles both one flower, Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion. * * * * * ~Biographical Memoranda.~ JOHN SCOT, A FASTING FANATIC. In the year 1539, there lived in Scotland one John Scot, no way commended for his learning, for he had none, nor for his good qualities, which were as few. This man, being overthrown in a suit of law, and knowing himself unable to pay that wherein he was adjudged, took sanctuary in the abbey of Holyrood-house; where, out of discontent, he abstained from all meat and drink, by the space of thirty or forty days together. Fame having spread this abroad, the king would have it put to trial, and to that effect shut him up in a private room within the castle of Edinburgh, whereunto no man had access. He caused a little water and bread to be set by him, which he was found not to have diminished in the end of thirty days and two. Upon this he was dismissed, and, after a short time, he went to Rome, where he gave the like proof of his fasting to pope Clement VII.; from whence he went to Venice, carrying with him a testimony of his long fasting under the pope’s seal: and there also he gave the like proof thereof. After long time, returning into England, he went up into the pulpit in St. Paul’s Church-yard, where he gave forth many speeches against the divorce of king Henry VIII. from his queen Katherine, inveighing bitterly against him for his defection from the see of Rome; whereupon he was thrust into prison, where he continued fasting for the space of fifty days: what his end was I read not.--_Spotswood, &c._