As fayre an handid man : Malory s figurative language

Figurative language in Malory is not very varied, but is strongly connected to chivalry and the community standards that uphold it. This paper deals briefly with set figurative phrases but focuses on similes and some other figurative phrases, especially ‘out of measure’ and phrases involving hands, as examples of this. The figurative language used has a number of functions: the similes are not original or intended to be so but instead connect the depiction of chivalry to other chivalric texts; the phrases concerned with ‘measure’ remind the reader if the standards of the chivalric community, and the phrases involving hands retain a connection to the literal hands of the knight characters, bringing the violence perpetrated by a knight s hands into focus. The figurative language of Malory, while not as diverse and varied as we might expect were this a modern text, fulfils literary functions that are essential to this chivalric romance.