Summary

"The metaphor is cleverer than the author" (Lichtenberg), a "screen," an "instrument for bundling" (Müller), because "everything changes so much" (Gertrude Stein) - Müller explicates these functions of figurative language with reference to the use of metaphors in Shakespeare. This use of metaphor corresponds to the acceleration of the Elizabethan age (the second half of the sixteenth century), the consolidation of which compels Shakespeare to use an allegorizing language in his last plays.