Simile
Simile is the explicit comparison between two things using “like” or “as”.
Notes on Simile
Animal Imagery
Read the NoteAnimal imagery dominates Henry VI, Part 3, as in two passages here:
Margaret
And yet shalt thou be safe? Such safety finds
The trembling lamb environèd with wolves.
Had I been there, which am a silly woman,
The soldiers should have tossed me on their pikes
Before I would have granted to that act…
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The Snare of Vanity
Read the NoteIn Act 2, Scene 1 of Julius Caesar, Decius Brutus uses “betrayed” to mean fooled, tricked or misled. A person can escape a unicorn by hiding behind a tree; a bear can be misled by seeing itself in a mirror; an elephant can be tricked into falling into a hole; a lion caught in a trap; and men seduced by flatterers.
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Plagiarizing Himself
Read the NoteShakespeare often reused images and metaphors, stealing from himself. The simile in Friar Lawrence’s musing from Romeo and Juliet,
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume.
is echoed in the metaphor of the third quatrain of Sonnet 73.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
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Quotes including the Figure of Speech Simile
O, for a muse of fire
Read the QuoteO, for a muse of fire that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention!Metaphor
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!Anapodoton
Can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? Or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
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In sooth I know not why I am so sad
Read the QuoteAntonio
In sooth I know not why I am so sad.
It wearies me, you say it wearies you.
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,Epistrophe
What stuff ’tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn.
And such a want-wit sadness makes of meHyperbaton
That I have much ado to know myself.
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Tush, never tell me! I take it much unkindly
Read the QuoteRoderigo
Tush, never tell me! I take it much unkindly
That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse
As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.
Iago
’Sblood, but you’ll not hear me!
If ever I did dream of such a matter,
Abhor me.
Roderigo
Thou toldst me thou didst hold him in thy hate.
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You do not meet a man but frowns
Read the QuoteFirst Gentleman
You do not meet a man but frowns. Our bloods
No more obey the heavens than our courtiers’
Still seem as does the King’s.Ellipsis
Second Gentleman
But what’s the matter?
Howsoe’er ’tis strange,
Or that the negligence may well be laughed at,
Yet is it true,
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An untimely ague Stayed me a prisoner in my chamber
Read the QuoteBuckingham
An untimely ague
Stayed me a prisoner in my chamber when
Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,Anaphora, Pun & Metaphor
Met in the vale of Andren.
Norfolk
’Twixt Guynes and Arde.
I was then present, saw them salute on horseback,
Beheld them when they lighted,
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What, has this thing appeared again tonight?
Read the QuoteHoratio
What, has this thing appeared again tonight?
Barnardo
I have seen nothing.
Marcellus
Horatio says ’tis but our fantasy
And will not let belief take hold of him
Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us.
Before my God, I might not this believe
Without the sensible and true avouch
Of mine own eyes.
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Angelo, There is a kind of character in thy life
Read the QuoteDuke
Angelo,
There is a kind of character in thy life,
That to th’ observer doth thy history
AlliterationFully unfoldHyperbaton. Thyself and thy belongings
Are not thine own so properAnastrophe as to waste
Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.
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All this was ordered by the good discretion
Read the QuoteNorfolk
All this was ordered by the good discretion
Of the right reverend Cardinal of York.
No man’s pie is freed
From his ambitious finger.
Buckingham
The devil speed him! No man’s pie is freed
From his ambitious finger.Metaphor What had he
To do in these fierce vanities?
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You look not well, Signior Antonio
Read the QuoteGratiano
You look not well, Signior Antonio.
You have too much respect upon the world.
They lose it that do buy it with much care.
Believe me, you are marvelously changed.
Antonio
I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano,
A stage where every man must play a part,
And mine a sad one.
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O, where is Romeo? Saw you him today?
Read the QuoteLady Montague
O, where is Romeo? Saw you him today?
Right glad I am he was not at this fray.
Benvolio
Madam, an hour before the worshiped sun
Peered forth the golden window of the east,
A troubled mind drove me to walk abroad,
Where underneath the grove of sycamore
That westward rooteth from this city side,
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