Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.

Philip Massinger

Lips, as blue as salt-water.

Her breath
Like a soft western wind, when it glides o’er
Arabia, creating gums and spices.

Her constancy, that, like a rock,
Beats off temptation, as that mocks the fury
Of the proud waves.

As the index tells the contents of the book, and directs to the particular chapter, even so do the outward habit and garments, in man or woman, give us a taste of the spirit, and point to the eternal quality of the soul; and there cannot be a more evident and gross manifestation of poor, degenerate, dunghill blood and breeding, than a rude, unpolished, disordered, and slovenly outside.

Familiar as eating.

Glorious as the Spring.

Killing as a plague.

Looks … as killing as the basilisk’s.

Lips,
That open like the morn, breathing perfumes,
On such as dare approach them.

Naked as my nail.

His bones
Rattle in his skin, like beans tossed in a bladder.

Small as atoms.

Stares as he had seen Medusa’s head.

Tedious as dull sorrows.

Wanton … as a cat in a bowl of water.

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