Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916. William Wycherley
A beauty masked, like the sun in eclipse, gathers together more gazers than if it shined out. 1 Censorious … as a superannuated sinner. 2 Dull as a country squire. 3 Fortune as well as women must be taken in the humor. 4 Friends, like mistresses, are avoided for obligations past. 5 Great ladies, like great merchants, set but the higher prizes upon what they have, because they are not in necessity of taking the first offer. 6 Marrying to increase love is like gaming to become rich. 7 Mistresses are like books. If you pore upon them too much, they doze you, and make you unfit for company; but if used discreetly you are the fitter for conversation by ’em. 8 For plays, like women, by the world are thought, 9 Reputation, like other mistresses, is never true to a man in his absence. 10 Sweet as the head of your cane. 11 Troublesome … as a young coxcomb-rhyming lover. 12 Unmerciful as the physician who with new arts keeps his miserable patient alive and in hopes, when he knows the disease is incurable. 13 Vain as a Frenchman newly returned from a campaign. 14 Our wives, like their writings, are never safe except when under lock and key. 15 Women, like old soldiers, more nimbly execute than they resolve. 16
