The 'want of prudence' Hamlet displays
in accepting a challenge which he must 'carry out from a (mistaken)
feeling of self-respect,' has the 'intolerable' consequence that,
shortly before he crosses swords with Laertes, he confesses to
Horatio:--'But thou would'st not think how ill all's here about my
heart.'
Again, Shakspere, very briefly, but not less pointedly, depicts the
way in which Hamlet allows himself to be influenced and driven to a
decision. This time the poet does so by bringing in a clearly expressed
dogmatic tenet whereby Hamlet's fate is sealed. It is 'ill all about
his heart.' He would prefer not going to meet Laertes. [54]
_Horatio_. If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will
forestal their repair hither, and say you are not fit.
The fatalist Hamlet, whom we have seen coming ever closer to the doctrine
of Predestination, answers as follows:--
'Not a whit; we defy augury; there is special providence in
the fall of a sparrow. [55] If it be now, 'tis not to come;
if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet
it will come; the readiness is all. Since no man has aught
of what he leaves, what is't to leave betimes? Let be.'
This time it is a 'Let be!'--even as it was a 'Let it go' when he was
sent to England.
Now let us read Montaigne's Essay, [56] 'To Philosophise is to Learn
how to Die:'--
'Our religion has had no surer human foundation than the contempt of
life.
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