take this admired passage from his "Duchess of Malfy":--

_Ferdinand._ How doth our sister Duchess bear herself
In her imprisonment?

_Basola._ Nobly: I'll describe her.
She's sad as one long used to 't, and she seems
Rather to welcome the end of misery
Than shun it: a behaviour so noble
As gives a majesty to adversity
(Note the abstract terms.)
You may discern the shape of loveliness
More perfect in her tears than in her smiles;
She will muse for hours together; and her silence
(Here we first come on the concrete: and beautiful it is.)
Methinks expresseth more than if she spake.

Now set against this the well-known passage from "Twelfth Night" where
the Duke asks and Viola answers a question about someone unknown to him
and invented by her--a mere phantasm, in short: yet note how much more
definite is the language:--

_Viola._ My father had a daughter lov'd a man;
As it might be, perhaps, were I a woman,
_I_ should your lordship.

_Duke._ And what's her history?

_Viola._ A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,