hyperboles, he has a classical authority for it in Catullus’s
“Qui tantum arderet quantum Trinacria rupes;”
for his next sally,
Ariodantes such a flame had lit
In the young damsel’s breast, that seas in flood
Would not have cooled one whit her boiling blood,
Stanza xx. lines 6, 7, 8.
I do not know of any precedent; and it must be confessed that such strokes of extravagance in pictures of passion are unredeemed by their humour.
You needs must know
That from the root, although the trunk be hewed,
Successive suckers many times will grow.
Stanza xxiii. lines 2, 3, 4.
“Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus,
“Per damna, per cædes, ab ipso
“Ducit opes animumque ferro.”
And a chill
Went through his inmost bones.
Stanza xl. lines 5 and 6.
“gelidusque per ima cucurrit
“Ossa tremor.”
With wounded heart, with faltering voice, pale face,
And mouth of gall.
Stanza xli. lines 1 and 2.
The faltering voice and pale face are indications of passion
