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The BEARS and BEES.

A FABLE.

By the Same.
1 AS two young Bears in wanton mood,
2 Forth-issuing from a neighbouring wood,
3 Came where th' industrious Bees had stor'd
4 In artful cells their luscious hoard;
5 O'erjoy'd they seiz'd with eager haste
6 Luxurious on the rich repast.
7 Alarm'd at this the little crew
8 About their ears vindictive flew.
9 The beasts unable to sustain
10 Th' unequal combat, quit the plain;
11 Half blind with rage, and mad with pain;
12 Their native shelter they regain;
13 There sit, and now discreeter grown,
14 Too late their rashness they bemoan;
15 And this by dear experience gain,
16 That pleasure's ever bought with pain.
17 So when the gilded baits of vice
18 Are plac'd before our longing eyes,
19 With greedy haste we snatch our fill,
20 And swallow down the latent ill;
21 But when experience opes our eyes,
22 Away the fancy'd pleasure flies.
23 It flies, but oh! too late we find
24 It leaves a real sting behind.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): The BEARS and BEES. A FABLE.
Author: James Merrick
Themes: animals; virtue; vice; fighting; conflict
Genres: fable
References: DMI 27722

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Source edition

Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. V. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758], p. 221. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.005) (Page images digitized by the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive from a copy in the archive's library.)

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