The parade of nature at the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge continues and on schedule the New England Tree Frogs (I think) have appeared. I ran into the fellow of Figure 1 on Monday morning, and he was scared enough of me to freeze riveted in place for a close-up with my cell phone.

There is something about frogs, something almost human. I suspect that it is related to their body shape and the seeming grins on their faces. This has, of course, had the unfortunate effect of making them victims of countless high school dissections. Usually they are not portrayed as evil. The biblical plague of Frogs may be a notable exception.

Frogs feature in Aristophanes’ play be the same name, where Dionysus is tormented by a chorus of frogs. Surprisingly, that is the only reference to frogs in the play.

As I contemplated this little froggy and he me, I was reminded of the puzzlement of the Fairy Queen in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe, the fairy Iolanthe is banished by the Fairy Queen, because she committed the sin of marrying a mortal, from fairyland to a place of her choosing, she chooses to live beneath the stream with the frogs. Nobody knows why.

Fairy Queen: “…and the frogs! Ugh! I never shall enjoy any peace of mind until I know why Iolanthe went to live among the frogs.”

So delightful. But soon it is revealed that the reason is that Iolanthe wanted to live near her son, Strephon – the sacrifices mothers make. Strephon is half human half fairy and this leads to the great and marvelous chaos of the play. This centers around Strephon being sent by the Fairy Queen to Parliment where he magically passes legislature making the House of Lords merit-based. Imagine the implication of that to the American Congress in our times!

It was something to think about as I left the little smiling froggy alone, much to his relief, and of course, the words of the Dance of the Peers rang through my head as I resumed my walk down the path.

“Bow, bow, ye lower middle classes!
Bow, bow, ye tradesmen, bow, ye masses.“