Blason

In Antony and Cleopatra, Philo used Blason to describe Antony, a male, at the opening of the play in Act I Scene I:

O’erflows the measure. Those his goodly eyes,
That o’er the files and musters of the war
Have glowed like plated Mars, now bend, now turn
The office and devotion of their view
Upon a tawny front. His captain’s heart,
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on this breast, reneges all temper,
And is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a gipsy’s lust.

The blason used in this scene in Antony and Cleopatra may seem a little bit strange because blason, as described by Professor Little, is a term referring to the detailed description of the body part of a woman, or of one’s beloved. The long form of blason is called blason du corps feminin. Blason frequently appears in the idea of praising of women, for example, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet:

I conjure thee by Rosaline’s bright eyes,
By her high forehead and her scarlet lip,
By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh,
And the demesnes that there adjacent lie.
Act II Scene I

Ching Kar Wong
Section 1C