The Parliament of Bees
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The Parliament of Bees is the best-known of the works of the Elizabethan dramatist, John Day.
It is an exquisite and unique work, a masque rather than a drama. Its subject is "the doings, the births, the wars, the wooings" of bees. The bees hold a parliament under Prorex, the Master Bee, and various complaints are preferred against the humble-bee, the wasp, the drone and other offenders. This satirical allegory of affairs ends with a Royal Progress by Oberon, who distributes justice to all.