So is the equal poise of this fell war.
(_Henry VI._)
In the last five examples the epic treatment and the personifications
are noteworthy.
Comparisons from animal life are forcible and striking:
How like a deer, stricken by many princes,
Dost thou lie here! (_Julius Caesar._)
Richard III. is called:
The wretched bloody and usurping boar
That spoil'd your summer fields and fruitful vines,
Swills your warm blood like wash and makes his trough
In your embowell'd bosoms; this foul swine
Lies now even in the centre of this isle.
The tiger now hath seized the gentle hind.
(_Richard III._)
The smallest objects are noted:
As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport. (_King Lear._)
_Marcus_: Alas! my lord, I have but kill'd a fly.
_Titus_: But how if that fly had a father and a mother?
How would he hang his slender gilded wings,
And buzz lamenting doings in the air!
Poor harmless fly!
That, with his pretty buzzing melody,
Came here to make us merry! and thou
Hast kill'd him!
(_Titus Andronicus._)
Shakespeare has abundance of this idyllic miniature painting, for
which all the literature of the day shewed a marked taste.
Tamora says:
My lovely Aaron, wherefore look'st thou sad,
When everything doth make a gleeful boast?
The birds chant melody on every bush,
The snake lies rolled in the cheerful sun,
The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind
And make a chequer'd shadow on the ground.
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