Previous
Alliteration
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Act 2, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Helen the Medicine:
When attempting to persuade the King to meet with Helen, Lafew employs hyperbole, allusion, and idiom to describe Helen’s remarkable medical abilities. He states:
I have seen a medicine
That’s able to breathe life into a stone
Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary
With sprightly fire and motion, whose simple touch
Is powerful to araise King Pippen, nay,
To give great Charlemagne a pen in ’s hand
And write to her a love line
Related Themes:
Act 3, Scene 5
Explanation and Analysis—Wrack of Maidenhood.:
Mariana uses hyperbole and allusion to warn Diana about men’s deceptive ways, specifically targeting the untrustworthy Parolles:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I know that knave, hang him! One Parolles, a filthy officer he is in those suggestions for the young earl.—Beware of them, Diana. Their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of lust are not the things they go under. Many a maid hath been seduced by them; and the misery is example that so terrible shows in the wrack of maidenhood cannot for all that dissuade succession, but that they are limed with the twigs that threatens them.
Related Themes:
Act 4, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Disgrace Knocks:
Parolles contemplates the lies he will need to fabricate for Bertram and the Lords in order to maintain his façade of bravery. In this scene, Shakespeare combines idiom, personification, and a classical allusion to display Parolles's internal conflict:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[...] [T]hey begin to smoke me; and disgraces have of late knocked too often at my door. I find my tongue is too foolhardy; but my heart hath the fear of Mars before it and of his creatures, not daring the reports of my tongue.
Related Themes:
Act 4, Scene 5
Explanation and Analysis—Patches:
When the Fool describes Bertram's appearance to the Countess, he uses both allusion and imagery to cast doubt on Bertram’s character:
Unlock with LitCharts A+O madam, yonder’s my lord your son with a patch of velvet on ’s face. Whether there be a scar under ’t or no, the velvet knows, but ’tis a goodly patch of velvet. His left cheek is a cheek of two pile and a half, but his right cheek is worn bare.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Herbs and Salads:
In Act 4, Scene 5, Lafew and the Fool use metaphor, imagery, and allusion to discuss Helen’s remarkable qualities. The conversation goes as follows:
Unlock with LitCharts A+LAFEW: ’Twas a good lady, ’twas a good lady. We may pick a thousand salads ere we light on such another herb.
FOOL: Indeed, sir, she was the sweet marjoram of the salad, or rather the herb of grace.
LAFEW: They are not herbs, you knave. They are nose-herbs.
FOOL: I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, sir. I have not much skill in grass.
Related Themes:
