Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.

Thomas Dekker

Arguments, like children, should be like
The subject that begets them.

Chaste as Cynthia’s breast.

Your cheeks of late are like bad printed books,
So dimly charactered, I scarce can spell
One line of love in them.

Foul, like a birding place.

Full of company as a jail.

Gape wider than an oyster-wife.

Longer than a lawsuit.

Opposite as day and darkness.

Pale as a new cheese.

Pure as fire.

Sagging down like a Welsh wallet.

Like the Jews, scattered.

Sour as verjuice.

Swift as a whirlwind.

Wide as the mouth of a wallet.

Women are like medlars, no sooner ripe than rotten.