"When valour preys on reason / It eats the sword it fights with"

— Shakespeare [from Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language]

Author

Shakespeare [from Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language]

Work Title

Reason [from A Dictionary of the English Language in Which Words are Deduced from their Originals, and Illustrated in their Different Significations by Examples from the best Writers.]

Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by W. Strahan [etc.]
Date
1755
Metaphor
"When valour preys on reason / It eats the sword it fights with"
Metaphor in Context
When valour preys on reason,
It eats the sword it fights with.
Categories
Animals::Predation War::Sword
Provenance
Reading Johnson's and Bailey's dictionaries
Citation
Johnson, Samuel. A Dictionary of the English Language: In Which the Words Are Deduced from Their Originals, and Illustrated in Their Different Significations by Examples from the Best Writers. To Which Are Prefixed, a History of the Language, and an English Grammar. New York,: AMS Press, 1967.
Date of Entry
06/24/2004

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.