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All Site ContentJulius CaesarAct 4Scene 2
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"as the flint bears fire"
Metaphor
Act 4,
Scene 2
Lines 158b-164a

An explanation of the simile "as the flint bears fire" in Act 4, Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

Brutus

                                                      Sheathe your dagger.
Be angry when you will, it shall have scope.
Do what you will, dishonor shall be humor.
O Cassius, you are yokèd with a lamb
That carries anger as the flint bears fire,
Who, much enforcèd, shows a hasty spark,
And straight is cold again.

Brutus metaphorically compares himself to a lamb, and then uses a simile to compare a lamb’s mildness to a flint bearing fire. He can only get angry for a brief moment—like a flint which gives off a hot spark when struck, but then immediately returns to the cold temperature it was before.