Ibid

court. Through labour cometh honour, through idle luing, foloweth banging. Diuers in this our tyme, delite moche in this kinde of writing, whiche being measurably vsed, delhiteth moche the hearers, otherwl{ilse it offendeth, and werieth mennes eares with sacietie. S. Augustine had a goodly gift in this behalfe..… Tacitus also sheweth that in his time, the Judges and Seriauntes at the lawe, wer driuen to vse this kinde of phrase, bothe in their writyng, and also in their speakyng. Yea, greate lordes would thinke theim selues contempned, if learned men (when thei speake before them) sought not to speake in this sort. So that for the flowing stile, and full sentence, crept in minstrelles elocution, talking matters altogether in rime, and for weightines and grauitie of wordes succedyng nothyng els but wantonnesse of inuencion. T'ullie was forsaken, with Liuie, Cesar, and other : and Apuleius, Ausonius, with soche minstrell makers, were altogether folowed... I speake thus moche of these twoo figures not that I thinke foly to vse them (for thei are pleasaunt and praise worthie) but my talke is to this ende, that thei should neither onely, nor chiefly bee vsed, as I knowe some in this our time, doe ouermoche vse them in their writinges Î.

Et ce n'élait pas seulement l'emploi des figures de Gorgias que l’on recommandait dans ces traités de rhétorique, mais aussi l'emploi des comparaisons tant avec la mythologie et l'histoire antique qu'avec l'histoire naturelle. Voici ce que disait encore le rhéteur auquel ont été empruntés les passages qui précèdent :

Similitudo. À similitude is a likenesse when 1j thinges, or mo then two, ar so compared and resembled together, that they bothe in some one propertie seme like, Oftentymes brute beastes, and thinges that haue no life, minister greate matter in this behalfe. Therfore those that delite to proue thynges by similitudes, must learne to knowe the nature of diuerse beastes, of metalles, of stones and al soche, as haue any vertue in them, &