John Day
born 1574, Cawston, Norfolk, Eng.
died 1640?
Elizabethan dramatist whose verse allegory The
Parliament of Bees shows unusual ingenuity and
delicacy of imagination.
Day was expelled from the University of
Cambridge in 1593 for theft, and after 1598 he
became a playwright for the theatre proprietor
and manager Philip Henslowe. In this capacity
Day collaborated with Thomas Dekker, Henry
Chettle, and some lesser-known writers. His
first extant play is The Blind-Beggar of
Bednal-Green (written in 1600, with Chettle;
published 1659). Among his other plays are The
Isle of Gulls (1606) and Humour Out of Breath
(1608). Day’s reputation rests mainly on The
Parliament of Bees, published posthumously in
1641 and probably written near the end of his
life. This exquisite masque, which is actually a
series of pastoral eclogues, is about “the
doings, the births, the wars, the wooings” of
bees. The bees hold a parliament under Prorex,
the “Master Bee,” and grievances are presented
against the bumblebee, the wasp, the drone, and
other insects whom the author uses to represent
various human types. The satirical allegory ends
with a royal progress of the fairy king Oberon,
who dispenses justice among the bees.
