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All Site ContentRomeo and JulietAct 1Scene 3
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Paris as a Book
Metaphor
Act 1,
Scene 3
Lines 81-90

A metaphor comparing Paris to a book in myShakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 3.

Lady Capulet

What say you? Can you love the gentleman?
This night you shall behold him at our feast.
Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face,
And find delight writ there with beauty's pen.
Examine every married lineament,
And see how one another lends content.
And, what obscured in this fair volume lies,
Find written in the margent of his eyes.
This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
To beautify him, only lacks a cover.

This is the beginning of an elaborate and elegant metaphor in which Lady Capulet compares Paris to a book and Juliet to its cover.