Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Paul Quinn:   
      
    ak>  Having remembered that King Arthas "smelled like horse"   
      
      
             Uh... in what context?  If the reference is to King Arthur or to   
   some other person who lived long ago in a faraway land, I'll accept that.   
      
             I occasionally see & hear reports that a person "smells like a   
   goat". In historical novels & suchlike, however, it's not at all uncommon to   
   see forms of speech regarded as obsolete now.  That's why I was so delighted   
   to notice in your excerpt from IVANHOE "lest thy clownish bearing discover   
   thee" that I said to myself "I have to read this book!!"  The author was   
   actually using 16th-17th century English (which educated native speakers can   
   more or less make sense of) rather than the earlier version these characters   
   would have used.  For me, it's fun to exercise neurons which haven't been used   
   for awhile.  And I also realize the author is setting the scene, not writing a   
   treatise on Old English....  :-)   
      
      
      
    ak>  I would remove an article before "ball" -- the verse   
    aK>  will be read easier.   
      
    ak>  Out of the night that covers me,   
    ak>  Black as like inside of ball,   
      
      
             Pattern #1 (i.e. the way I was taught):   
      
                   (as) black as the Ace of Spades   
                   (as) cute as a bug's ear   
                   (as) drunk as a skunk   
                   (as) warm as toast   
                   (as) slow as molasses in January   
      
      
             Pattern #2 (i.e. teenage lingo, not generally recommended):   
      
                   (as) black as, like, well, you know....   
      
      
             I'd say "(as) black as the inside of a ball".  Re what a 19th   
   century poet may or may not have been thinking, I'll expand on that later.  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)