Berowne resists Ferdinand’s obsession with study, arguing that too much study is useless and can even be detrimental to a student. He uses a simile to help make this argument:
Study is like the heaven’s glorious sun,
That will not be deep-searched with saucy looks.
Small have continual plodders ever won,
Save base authority from others’ books.
Berowne compares study to the sun, something one can glance at but not observe for too long (“will not be deep-searched”). Dedicated scholars (“continual plodders”) have not won anything from their work, he says, other than basic knowledge from other people’s books.
Throughout Berowne’s speech in this scene, he often references eyes, vision, and light while discussing knowledge and learning. He refers to the “light” of truth and its ability to frustrate those who search too intently for it (“Light seeking light doth light of light beguile”).
While Berowne’s motivations in this joking argument are clear (by his own admission he does not want to swear off women), he also raises valid points about the value of traditional study. Berowne seems to suggest that there is a limit to what study alone can teach the lords, and that “looking” too closely can lead to a false sense of expertise about life and the world. After all, he says, the experience of love is another equally important source of knowledge (“study me how to please the eye”).
After the Princess of France meets King Ferdinand, Boyet teases her while recalling how smitten the King looked. He relies on a simile to describe Ferdinand’s expression:
Methought all his senses were locked in his eye,
As jewels in crystal for some prince to buy,
Who, tend’ring their own worth from where they
were glassed,
Did point you to buy them along as they passed.
When Boyet says that all of Ferdinand’s senses are “lock’d” in his eye, he means that his other senses are sublimated to his vision, which is taking in the princess. In other words, Ferdinand is unaware of anything else. These senses are compared to jewels in a jar, up for sale (“for some prince to buy”). Their value, Boyet continues, comes from where they are “glassed” (stored).
Boyet casts the princess in the role of purchaser and Ferdinand in the role of merchant, offering her his “jewels” (“did point you to buy them”) over the course of the conversation. In this, Boyet suggests that Ferdinand is aware that his emotions and interest in the princess are showing on his face, and that he hopes that they move or affect the princess during their conversation.
The comparison of Ferdinand’s feelings to jewels is not only a lyrical choice of words, it also works to emphasize their value. This value, Boyet suggests, comes in part from Ferdinand’s identity as King (“where they / were glassed”). It seems unlikely, given how little Boyet knows Ferdinand, that he considers them valuable based on who he is in a deeper sense. Capturing the attention of the King is a coup for the princess on a strategic level, as she seeks to regain the territory of Aquitaine (“give you Aquitaine, and all that is his”).
