Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-08-28
FLIES IN LITERATURE
UBIQUITY OF TIE INSECT AND
IT'S PLACE IN MYTHOLOGY.
Some Of Its Habits How the Poets
and Other Writers Refer
to It.

scarcely surprising that It Is a fairly famil-
lar figure in literature. As Allan Quater-
main observes. speaking OF the house
variety: He is extraordinary animal.
is the house fly. Go where you will you
viii find him. and so 1t must always have
been. and l have little doubt that
when the last man lies dying on the earth
he will be buzzing round-if that event
should happen to occur in summer-watch-
ing Tor an opportunity to settle, his
nose He plays, too. a quite respectfully
important part in the old mythologies. BeeI-
zebub. Achor and zenoapomyios were fly
deities. Jupiter's first wife Metis was
changed into fly. Oe. ian tells US that near
the temple of Apollo at Leucas fies were
adored by the sacrifice of an OK Then
there is the oft-Guoted fable OF the fly on
the wheel-that singularly anthropomorphc
fly, that remarked complacentiy: See what
a dust we maker'-and that other fable OF
early school room association Of The Man
the Cat. the Dog and the Fly wherein.
like his cousin of the wheel the fly INDUCES
In unseemly boastng and is straightway
sQuashed Of somewhat the same class Is
the story. generally repeated to point a
moral; OF Domitian and his fly-kiiling pro-
pensities. which were so much a matter OF
contemporary knowledge that his attend
ants. by way of assuring inquirers that the
emperor was quite alone. were wont to
say: There is not even fly with him.
Gloster on Flies.
OF the references to flies in Shakespeare
probably the most familiar Is that In
Lear" where Gloster, in his unhappy
pessimsm." declares:
As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods.
They kill us for their sport.
Less adaptable for quotation but fun of
subtle force. Is the passage in Titus An
dronicus -whether the particular lines be
Shakespeares or not-in which Marcus kills
fly, and is at first chided by his brother
for wantonly killing poor harmless fly
That with his pretty buzzing melody
Came here to make merry.
But when Marcus explains that 1t was IA
black iIl-favored fly like the empress.
Moor" Titus, with bitter passion, Graves
pardon for the reprehending. In all prob
ability the most familiar Of all flies in lit
erature Is that often quoted and apostro-
phized by Uncle Toby. The fly in question
1t will be remembered had been making the
poor gentleman's life a burden to him all
dinner time. and was at last captured. TN
not hurt thee" says Uncle Toby rising
from his chair and going across the room
with the fly in his hand I'll not hurt a hair
or thy head. Go. go, poor devil, get thee
gone: why should hurt thee? This world.
surely, Is wide enough to hold both thee and
me-" Still more amiable Is old William
Oldys. Possibly his fly was too thirsty to
be theoretically aggravating, but his ad-
dress touches height of 'musca -phir' en-
thusiasm to which 1t is to be feared few OF
us feel capable of attaining:
Busy. curious, thirsty fly
Drink with me- and drink as I.
Freely welcome TO my cup.
Flies Triple.
The drinking habits Of flies, 1t may be
mentioned. are at least as much noticed in
literature as any of their other character
istics. Gay reminds us that 1.-The fly that
sips treacle Is lost In the sweets" Thomson,
In 1.-The Castle Of Incidence" shows US
A Furnished fly.
Soothing at first the gay reposing throng
And oft he sips their bowl. or, nearly
drowned. takes his revenge by buzzing
about their beds Still more familiar is the
fly which Dickens introduces in the inter-
view between Sir John Chester and his son.
To the latter's impassioned pleading his
father replies with polished heartIessness.
interrupting himself to remark with charm
ing airiness: Positively a fly in the lug
The first have seen this year" Later on.
when he is giving the coup de grace to
poor Edwards aspirations. he again breaks
on: Il observe another fly in the cream
Jug. but have the goodness not to take 1t
out as you did the first, for their walk
when their legs are milky Is extremely I'M
graceful and disa agreeable" 1t Is obviously
Impossible to note hundredth part Of the
references to flies in literature: only the
most familiar and representative cases can
be mentioned. 1t is interesting to observe
the different ways in which they are in
troduced. Gray. for instance, in his ode
on the Spring." may be said to treat the
ny from purely subjective standpoint
He moralizes prettily on the insect YOUTH
playing about in the sum- with the result
that he figures one of them as making the
sportive kind reply"
Poor moralst and what art thou7
solitary fly.
Wordsworth. on the other hand, in his
verses Written in Germany on one of the
coolest days of the century," treats the I'M
fortunate specimen of the tribe that he dis
covers from more objective point Of view.
Somehow. 1T is not so very difficult to imag-
Inc a kindly feeling for a solitary fly in
winter time. There are. however, moments
when we feel disposed to insist that 1t must
be solitary and must be winter
II Wordsworth's is winter fly, Tenny-
sons most familiar contribution to flies
In literature, that in Mariana" is en-
phatically summer 1.-THE blue fly song in
the pane" a perfectly appropriate and har-
montous figure in its setting has acquired
an indirect interest from being one of the
lines ridicaled by Lytton in the New
Tfmon-
Let schoolmiss Alfred
Chant I'm aweary In infectious strain
And catch the blue fly buzzing l. the pane
which reminds US. 'longo intervallo," of
Thomson's reminder that
To needless flies the window proses
A constant death
Folklore of Flies.