Where the subject is burlesque or ludicrous, such similes are far from being improper. Horace says pleasantly,
Quanquam tu levior cortice.
L. 3. ode 9.
And Shakespear,
In breaking oaths he’s stronger than Hercules.
And this leads me to observe, that beside the foregoing comparisons, which are all serious, there is a species, the end and purpose of which is to excite gaiety or mirth. Take the following examples.
Falstaff, speaking to his page:
I do here walk before thee, like a sow that hath overwhelmed all her litter but one.
Second Part Henry IV. act 1. sc. 4.
I think he is not a pick-purse, nor a horse-stealer; but for his verity in love, I do think him as concave as a cover’d goblet, or a worm-eaten nut.
As you like it, act 3. sc. 10.