The Parliament of Bees

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.