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Irony
Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Key Examples in Richard II
Act 1, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—False Treasures:
Mowbray metaphorically compares a man whose reputation has been questioned to various “false” treasures. Speaking before the King and his court, Mowbray turns down efforts to find a peaceful resolution to his conflict with Bolingbroke, stating:
The purest treasure mortal times afford
Is spotless reputation; that away,
Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times-barred-up chest
Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Purge This Choler:
King Richard II uses a series of medical metaphors in urging Mowbray and Bolingbroke not to resort to violence in resolving their bitter dispute. Urging the two men not to be ruled by their own anger, he states:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Let’s purge this choler without letting blood.
This we prescribe, though no physician.
Deep malice makes too deep incision.
Forget, forgive; conclude and be agreed.
Our doctors say this is no month to bleed.
Explanation and Analysis—Reins and Spurs:
Mowbray, the Duke of York, uses metaphors related to horse-riding to describe his inability to speak freely and give full voice to his anger in front of King Richard II. Speaking before the royal court to respond to Henry Bolingbroke’s accusations of murder and treason, Mowbray states:
Unlock with LitCharts A+First, the fair reverence of your Highness curbs me
From giving reins and spurs to my free speech,
Which else would post until it had returned
These terms of treason doubled down his throat.
Related Themes:
Act 1, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Vials of Blood:
The Duchess of Gloucester uses both a simile and a related metaphor for understanding genealogy in her speech to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. The Duchess states:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Edward’s seven sons, whereof thyself art one,
Were as seven vials of his sacred blood
Or seven fair branches springing from one root.
Some of those seven are dried by nature’s course,
Some of those branches by the Destinies cut.
But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Gloucester,
One vial full of Edward’s sacred blood,
One flourishing branch of his most royal root,
Is cracked and all the precious liquor spilt
Related Themes:
Act 1, Scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—My Tongue's In Jail:
In a striking metaphor, Mowbray compares his own mouth to a prison after being exiled permanently from England by King Richard II. Stunned by this harsh punishment, Mowbray responds to the King and his entourage:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Within my mouth you have enjailed my tongue,
Doubly portcullised with my teeth and lips,
And dull unfeeling barren ignorance
Is made my jailor to attend on me.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Midwife To My Woe:
The Queen uses a series of closely related metaphors regarding motherhood and childbirth in order to make sense of the political dangers that threaten her husband, the King. When Green, a member of the King’s retinue, tells her and Bushy of the defection of the Earl of Worcester to Bolingbroke’s rebellion, she states:
Unlock with LitCharts A+So, Green, thou art the midwife to my woe,
And Bolingbroke my sorrow’s dismal heir.
Now hath my soul brought forth her prodigy,
And I, a gasping new-delivered mother,
Have woe to woe, sorrow to sorrow joined.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—Caterpillars:
In a series of botanical metaphors, Bolingbroke compares Bushy, Bagot, and Green, attendants to King Richard II, to “caterpillars” whom he intends to “weed” from the garden of the English nation. Speaking to the Duke of York, he states:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But we must win your Grace to go with us
To Bristow Castle, which they say is held
By Bushy, Bagot, and their complices,
The caterpillars of the commonwealth,
Which I have sworn to weed and pluck away.
Related Themes:
Act 5, Scene 5
Explanation and Analysis—People of This World:
In one of the few soliloquies in this play, Richard uses metaphor to reflect on his extreme isolation in prison.
Unlock with LitCharts A+Yet I’ll hammer it out.
My brain I’ll prove the female to my soul,
My soul the father, and these two beget
A generation of still-breeding thoughts,
And these same thoughts people this little world,
In humors like the people of this world,
For no thought is contented.
