Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/370

194 Now when thou hast decreed to seize their Stores, And by Prerogative to break their Doors: With sprinkl'd Water first the City choak, And then pursue the Citizens with Smoak. Two Honey Harvests fall in ev'ry Year: First, when the pleasing Pleiades appear, And springing upward spurn the briny Seas: Again, when their affrighted Quire surveys The watry Scorpion mend his Pace behind, With a black Train of Storms, and Winter Wind, They plunge into the Deep, and safe Protection find. Prone to Revenge, the Bees, a wrathful Race, When once provok'd assault th' Agressor's Face: And through the purple Veins a passage find; There fix their Stings, and leave their Souls behind. But if a pinching Winter thou foresee, And would'st preserve thy famish'd Family; With fragant Thyme the City fumigate, And break the waxen Walls to save the State. For lurking Lizards often lodge, by Stealth, Within the Suburbs, and purloin their Wealth. And Lizards shunning Light, a dark Retreat Have found in Combs, and undermin'd the Seat. Or lazy Drones, without their Share of Pain; In Winter Quarters free, devour the Gain: Or Wasps infest the Camp with loud Alarms, And mix in Battel with unequal Arms: