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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Bennett HoggORCiD
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This survey of how sound was understood and represented in early modern beekeeping texts examines from a variety of perspectives the role and significance sound had for early modern English beekeepers. Drawing on the pioneering work of scholars of early modern sound and music such as Linda Phyllis Austern and Bruce R. Smith instances where sound is identified in a series of texts covering a century of English beekeeping publications are contextualised and analysed to uncover sound's role in organising and making comprehensible the world of domestic honeybees and the humans who worked with them. In particular, attention is focussed on the 'scene' in Charles Butler's The Feminine Monarchie (1623 edition) where what he supposes to be the eldest 'princess' begs leave of her mother, the reigning queen, to leave the hive (to swarm, in other words). Most writers of the period hear the 'tooting' of the new queen bee as a command, and even a voice of protest, but Butler hears a courtly, ritualised and domestic encounter that is distinctly different to what his contemporaries hear, showing quite a distinctive approach to understanding bee society.
Author(s): Hogg B
Editor(s): Richards, J; Smith, O; Sousa-Garcia, T
Publication type: Book Chapter
Publication status: Published
Book Title: Bee-ing Human: Inspired by Charles Butler's 'The Feminine Monarchy'
Year: 2025
Online publication date: 05/09/2025
Acceptance date: 18/08/2025
Publisher: Newcastle University
Place Published: Newcastle upon Tyne
URL: https://bee-inghuman.newcastle.ac.uk/literature/bees-early-modern-soundscape
