Opening Line
After two prefatory prologues, the narrative proper of the play opens with the entrance of Loveless and a metaphor. It is upon this extended metaphor that the play is constructed and its thematic structure reinforced:
“How true is that Philosophy, which says,
Our Heaven is seated in our Minds?”
Formal Language Makes it Funnier?
One of the questions which arises when interacting with this play is whether overly formal language serves to make a metaphorical insult funnier than something more modern. There can be no doubt that the artistry of the putdown has been severely lost over the years where something like the quote which follows is replaced, more often than not, by obscenity plus another word or two:
“He's like a Back-stair Minister at Court, who, whilst the reputed Favorites are sauntering in the Bed-Chamber, is ruling the roast in the Closet.”
The Bible
When it comes to literary allusions as metaphor, contemporary writers have at their disposal hundreds of thousands of works that contain fairly common material. Centuries ago, this was not true. For that reason, even comical similes called upon the one referential book everybody was expected to get: the Bible.
“So, here's our Inheritance, Lory, if we can but get into Possession. But methinks the Seat of our Family looks like Noah's Ark, as if the chief part on't were design'd for the Fowls of the Air, and the Beasts of the Field.”
The Love of Men
Men and women love equally, but differently. This is made clear in another of the play’s extended metaphors, but this one relies less on comedy and leans more toward the philosophizing of romanticism. Men, it is said, have a love that:
“’tis like the rivers of a modern philosopher…it sets out with a violent stream, splits in a thousand branches, and is all lost in the sands.”
Outdated Metaphors
One of the difficulties with using metaphor is that the connotation of words change significantly over time. A definition which makes sense in an ironic or comic vein in one century may completely lose that power to a reader of the future. Such is the fate working here:
“Mr. Mendlegs, a word with you: the claves of these stockings a thickened a little too much. They make my legs look a chairman’s.”
