What does 'Where the bee sucks there suck you' mean?

Answer 1

The correct quotation from Shakespeare's The Tempest is as follows:

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.

It's a song sung by Ariel, who's a kind of fairy, and it's all about being a fairy. What does a bee suck? Nectar from a flower. Where the bee sucks is in a flower. Ariel says he or she does the same as the bee. The next line, "in a cowslip's bell I lie" says the same--Ariel is living in a flower.

Don't get put off by the reversed words "there suck I" instead of "there I suck". Try substituting other verbs. "Where Paris Hilton shops, there shop I", "Where the US Army fights, there fight I", or "Where the Pope prays, there pray I."