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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
Act 1, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Exalted Thee:
In a series of related metaphors, Subtle insultingly suggests that he has created Face out of inanimate materials in the manner of a god or wizard:
Sub. Thou vermin, have I ta'en thee out of dung,
So poor, so wretched, when no living thing
Would keep thee company, but a spider, or worse?
Rais'd thee from brooms, and dust, and watering-pots,
Sublimed thee, and exalted thee, and fix'd thee
In the third region, call'd our state of grace?
Wrought thee to spirit, to quintessence, with pains
Would twice have won me the philosopher's work?
Put thee in words and fashion, made thee fit
For more than ordinary fellowships?
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—A Kind of Game:
Sir Epicure Mammon, who places great faith in alchemy, is accompanied by Surly, who is deeply skeptical of Subtle’s promises. When Subtle defends alchemy with a fallacious premise, Surly responds to his fallacy with a metaphor that characterizes alchemy as little more than a card trick:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Sub. Art can beget bees, hornets, beetles, wasps,
Out of the carcases and dung of creatures;
Yea, scorpions of an herb, being rightly placed?
And these are living creatures, far more perfect
And excellent than metals.Mam. Well said, father!
Nay, if he take you in hand, sir, with an argument,
He'll bray you in a mortar.SUR. Pray you, sir, stay.
Rather than I'll be brayed, sir, I'll believe
That Alchemy is a pretty kind of game,
Somewhat like tricks o' the cards, to cheat a man
With charming.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—Parents of Metals:
Subtle disguises himself as an alchemist in order to trick and rob Sir Epicure Mammon and others. In his attempt to explain how alchemy works to Mammon and the skeptical Surly, Subtle uses an elaborate metaphor that imagines metals as living things that are capable of birth:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Sub. It turns to sulphur, or to quicksilver,
Who are the parents of all other metals.
Nor can this remote matter suddenly
Progress so from extreme unto extreme,
As to grow gold, and leap o'er all the means [...]
Of that airy
And oily water, mercury is engender'd;
Sulphur of the fat and earthy part; the one,
Which is the last, supplying the place of male,
The other of the female, in all metals.
Some do believe hermaphrodeity,
That both do act and suffer. But these two
Make the rest ductile, malleable, extensive.
And even in gold they are.
Related Themes:
