All's Well that Ends Well

by William Shakespeare

All's Well that Ends Well: Dialect 1 key example

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Act 2, Scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—Honor:

The King utilizes metaphor, personification, and employs some Elizabethan English dialect while discussing the concept of honor and reproaching Bertram for dismissing Helen:

She is young, wise, fair [...]
And these breed honor.                                                      
That is honor’s scorn                                                                                            
Which challenges itself as honor’s born                       
And is not like the sire.
Honors thrive                                                                           
When rather from our acts we them derive                
Than our foregoers. The mere word’s a slave         
Debauched on every tomb, on every grave                
A lying trophy, and as oft is dumb                                
Where dust and damned oblivion is the tomb          
Of honored bones indeed.