What is peculiarly Shaksperian here is the profusion of metaphors. It is a sign of a great poet to deal freely with metaphors. We know how Byron heaps them up in Childe Harold, and Tennyson in In Memoriam.
Another proof of high genius—especially dramatic—is the ready use of wit and sarcasm. We have a passage of arms between Dudley and Courtenaye which is very masterly.
Dudley, having lost his way in the Tower, gets the headsman to show him to Courtenaye’s cell.
“Exeter. Ha! I should know that face; and lackeyed thus
By yon grim doomster, guess my coming fate.
Northumberland. I greet you well, Marquis of Exeter,
Noble Plantagenet!
Exeter. Hey, what means this?
The half-forgotten name, and fatal heritage!
Sir John of Dudley—bear and ragged staff—