Where the bee sucks, there suck I


What's the origin of the phrase 'Where the bee sucks, there suck I'?

From Shakespeare’s The Tempest, 1610:

ARIEL [sings]

Where the bee sucks, there suck I:
In a cowslip’s bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat’s back I do fly
After summer merrily.
Merrily, merrily shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

The practice of printers up until around 1780 of elongating ‘s’ characters to look rather like lowercase f’s have led to versions of Shakespeare’s work that we now snigger at; like this Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, printed in 1762, in which Shakespeare’s lines were included:

Trend of where the bee sucks in printed material over time

Gary Martin is a writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.

Gary Martin

Writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.
Where the bee sucks, there suck I

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