A Modern Greek God
The spotting of a young teenage boy from Greece situated upon a boat’s mast gives rise to the sort of epic flight of metaphorical fancy which dominates the text. Only in the rarest of cases it the author content with settling for one simple image; he is the architect of the full-bodied description containing multiple metaphors and similes:
“His hair (which the young men of Greece used to wear very long) was stirred up and down with the wind, which seemed to have a sport to play with it, as the sea had to kiss his feet”
Pamela
Musidorus is a Greek prince trying to make headway with Pamela, an Arcadian princess. He is, shall we say, just the littlest bit enamored of her. As his metaphor-laced appreciation make, once again abundantly, clear:
“He thought her fair forehead was a field where all his fancies fought, and every hair of her head seemed a strong chain that tied him.”
Philosophy
Occasionally, a bit of philosophical metaphorizing slips in between the constant cracks of descriptive prose. The philosophies expressed may not be groundbreaking, but at least they are not quite as extensively constructed:
“Hope is the fawning traitor of the mind, while under colour of friendship it robs it of his chief force of resolution.”
A Tongue-Tied Tongue-Twister
On more than one occasion it is fortunate that this work is not a drama filled with dialogue to be spouted on stage. Although, admittedly, it might provide for a great deal of entertainment watching less than experienced actors trip over these mountains of metaphor:
"What exclaiming praises Basilius gave to this Eclogue any man may guess that knows love is better than a pair of spectacles to make everything seem greater which is seen throughout it: and then is never tongue-tied where fit commendation, whereof womankind is so liquorish, is offered unto it.”
The Cave
A certain very dark cave not easily lending itself to the penetration of light will become of supreme importance to the plot. The cave of eternal darkness, of course, is also significant symbolically. And this is made manifest through metaphorical poetry which foreshadows all:
“This cave is dark, but it had never light.
This wax doth waste itself, yet painless dies.
These words are full of woes, yet feel they none.”
