This is the most general word for those various linguistic ways, including metaphor and simile, by which an idea is given relatively concrete shape. Shakespeare's images are evocative, suggesting ranges of reference beyond the literal meaning of a word or words. In MND, for instance, Oberon recalls how he once saw "Cupid's fiery shaft / Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon" (2.1.161-162): there are several images there, including "watery moon," which in this context not only gives a picture of this moon's appearance (hazy) but also suggests its peculiar dampening effect on lust ("fiery shaft" is another image--of a flaming arrow, with perhaps some other suggestion, too). When the besotted Titania goes off with her asinine lover, she says that the moon "looks with a watery eye" and drops tears for "enforcèd chastity" (3.1.198, 200): here, the moon's watery quality suggests its sadness at the fate of women who are not allowed (by parents, magic flowers, whatever) to choose whether or with whom they'll make love. Theseus begins the play with an elaborate image (a simile, in fact) of the moon "Like to a stepdame or a dowager" (1.1.5) who delays a young man getting the full use of his inheritance. Hippolyta answers with her own image of the moon "like to a silver bow / New bent in heaven" (1.1.9-10): in her image, the moon is active, forward-tending, and perhaps dangerous. Notice that for all his infinite variety, Shakespeare tends to repeat and vary certain images in each play; and notice how that reiterated imagery creates an imaginative atmosphere for the play.
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