Head of State
The author is a firm proponent of the necessity for a strong parliamentary legislature as a hold on the ambitions of a monarch to become a tyrant. Nevertheless, he also recognizes that parliamentary monarchy or not, the focus of the government is upon the monarch. Who, in this metaphorical image, is referred to in genderless fashion as simply a prince:
“To be short the prince is the life, the head, and the authoritie of all thinges that be doone in the realme of England.”
Dion and Brutus
Taking his cue from the comparison made by Plutarch, the author situates Dion and Brutus as metaphorical personifications of one-half of the argument at stake in the chapter titled “Of the question of what is right and just in everie common wealth.” The question for consideration is whether it is right to obey as justice laws designed to maintain the power of a tyrannical monarch or whether civil disobedience is the greater show of courageous patriotism to the nation. Dion and Brutus are paired together as exemplars of the latter argument, of course.
The House and the State
As if wanting to make extra sure that his readers actually do get the point he is making, the author at one point actually takes the step of describing what he is writing about as being metaphorical. Though, admittedly, it must be said that he does so using the Latin term:
“The house I call here the man, the woman, their children, their seruauntes bonde and free, their cattell, their housholde stuffe, and all other things, which are reckoned in their possession, so long as all these remaine togeather in one, yet this cannot be called Aristocratia, but Metaphorice, for it is but an house, and a little sparke resem∣bling as it were that gouernement.”
A Society of Men
The author calls upon a quote by Aristotle to punctuate his own point that man is by nature moved to create societies and that societies inherently move toward a need for authoritarian governance. Notably, the quote does not insist upon the fact that this is what separates man from the animals, but merely what separates himself from the primitive urge to unfettered freedom of certain animals:
“He that can liue alone saith Aristotle is either a wild beast in a mans likeness, or else a god rather than a man.”
The Tight Shoes of Unpopular Rule
A fashion metaphor is applied to enlighten the reader upon the principle of good government being that which is most natural to the citizens. Trying to enforce an unpopular style of rule upon a people who reject it leads to rebellion against the tyranny just as surely as one will rebel against wearing shoes that pinch one’s toes:
“when to ech partie or espece and kinde of the people that is applied which best agreeth like a garmēt to the bodie or shoe to the foote, then the bodie politique is in quiet, & findeth ease, pleasure and profit. But if a contrary forme be giuen to a contrary maner of people, as when the shoe is too litle or too great for the foote, it doth hurt and encomber the conuenient vse thereof,”
