Shakspeare's briefest metaphors are often finished paintings. Where Shakspeare is guilty of detailed description, he is very often laboured, cold, and involved; but his illustrative ideas are invariably copious, and it is often their superfluity which chiefly tends to mar the general effect. [Sidenote: Metaphor in _The Two Noble Kinsmen_ is Shakspere's.] In the play that you are to examine, you will find a profusion of metaphor, which is undoubtedly the offspring of a different mind from Fletcher's; and both its excellence and its peculiarity of character seem to me to stamp it as Shakspeare's. I think the following passage cannot be mistaken, though the beginning is difficult, and the text perhaps incorrect. [Sidenote: Instances of Shakspere's metaphors.] They two have _cab|ined_ In many as dangerous, as poor a corn|er-- Peril and want contending, they have _skiffed_ Torrents, whose raging _tyranny_ and _pow|er_ I' the least of these was dreadful; and they have Fought out together where _Death's self_ was _lodged_, Yet FATE hath BROUGHT THEM OFF. Their _knot_ of love, Tied, _weaved_, ENTANGLED, with so true, so long, And with a _finger_ of so deep a cun|ning, May be _outworn_, never _undone_. I think Theseus cannot be _umpire_ to himself, _Cleaving his conscience into twain_, and do|ing Each side like justice, which he loves best.--Act I. scene iii. The play throughout will give you metaphors, like Shakspeare's in their frequency, like his in their tone and character, and like his in their occasional obscurity and blending together. [Sidenote: Shakspere's classical images.]