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The Grumbling Hive: or, Knaves Turn'd Honest.
Did Dr. Bernard Mandeville write The Grumbling Hive? The allegory itself caused little notice until he resurrected it with his essay, The Fable of the Bees, or Private Vices, Public Benefits. In furthering his explanation of how good and evil are interrelated he brought scorn from those whose ox had been gored. Perhaps had he been so inclined to not take on all the proud and profane at once, but simply attacked them singly, he might have avoided the reprobation heaped upon him. Could allegory be redefined as all - gory, i.e., put the horn to them all at once.
Mandeville begins in describing the hive with its workers*
"...lived like Men, and all their actions preforme'd in small;
... Millions endeavouring to supply
Each other's Lust and Vanity;
While other Millions were employ'd,
... Some with vast Stocks, and little Pains,
Jump'd into Business of great Gains;
And some were damn'd to Sythes and Spades,
And all those hard labourious Trades;
... And many set up without a Cross (money);
As Sharpers, Parasites, Pimps Players,
Pick-Pockets, Coiners, Quacks, South-sayers,
...Convert to their own Use the Labour
Of their good-natur'd heedless Neighbour.
... All Trades and Places knew some cheat,
No Calling was without deceit."
"...The Lawyers of whose Art the Basis
Was raising Feuds and splitting Cases,
... Physicians valu'd Fame and Wealth
Above the drooping Patient's Health,
... Among the many Priest of Jove,
Hir'd to draw Blessings from Above,
Some few were Learn'd and Eloquent,
But thousands Hot and Ignorant:
... The Soldiers, that were forc'd to fight,
If they surviv'd got Honour by't;
...While others never came in Play,
And staid at Home for double Pay.
...They sold for Dirt t'enrich the Ground,
Was often by the Buyers found
Sophisticated with a quarter
Of good-for-nothing Stones and Mortar:
...Justice ...Her Left Hand which the Scales should hold,
Had often drpt ^�em brib'd with Gold;
... And Virtue, who from Politicks
Had learn'd a Thousand Cunning Tricks,
... Thus Vice nurs'd Ingenuity,
Which join'd with Time and Industry,
...the very Poor
Liv'd better than the Rich before,
...all the Rogues cry'd brazenly,
Good Gods, Had we but Honesty!
... How vast and sudden was th' Alteration,
In half an Hour, the Nation round,
Meat fell a Peny in the Pound.
... The Bar was silent from that Day;
...The Physick liv'd while Folks were ill,
...Their Clergy rous'd from Laziness,
...All those that were unfit, or knew
Their Services might be spar'd withdrew;
...No Honour now could be content,
To live and owe for what was spent;
...The Price of Land and Houses falls
...In vain to other Trades they'd fly;
All were o'er-stock'd accordingly.
...The building Trade is quite destroy'd,
Artificers (craftsmen) are not employ'd:
...Now how to spend, but how to live,
And, when they paid their Tavern Score,
Resolve'd to enter it no more.
...The slight and fickle Age is past;
And Clothes, as well as Fashions, last.
...Still Peace and Plenty reign,
And every Thing is cheap, tho' plain;
...But Rarities cannot be had,
Where Pains to get em are not paid.
As Pride and Luxury decrease,
So by degrees they leave the Seas,
Not Merchants now, but Companies
Remove whole Manufactories.
All Arts and Crafts neglected lie;
...And here they die or stand their Ground.
... vice is beneficial found,
When it's by Justice lopt and bound.
Or,
It was only after Mandeville took the poem and wrote definitive explanations that he roused the learned ones. Especially when he quite logically presented the case that wealth created and hoarded had no value. It was the act of creation of goods that put laborers to work and when they with their wages satisfied their wants and needs, caused civilization to advance. This was the nugget that Adam Smith developed in his An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations to the discourse on demand and supply.
Those that protested, were tweaked and twiddled. As example, A Modest Defence of Public Stews: Or, An Essay Upon Whoring, As it is now practis'd in these Kingdoms ... Written by a Layman. (Attributed to Bernard Mandeville) This was to show that by the legal operation of whorehouses, the public would soon discover that Chaste Embraces were much preferred to unindear'd casual Fruition. In offering the book to the public, the writer hoped to "pay off some of his Scores at the Gin-Shops."
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