That is the question, which, as it shall be answered, will
determine, _whether 'tis nobler_, and more suitable to the dignity of
reason, _to suffer the outrages of fortune_ patiently, or to take arms
against _them_, and by opposing end them, _though perhaps_ with the loss
of life. If _to die_, were _to sleep_, no more, _and by a sleep to end_
the miseries of our nature, such a sleep were _devoutly to be wished_;
but if _to sleep_ in death, be _to dream_, to retain our powers of
sensibility, we must _pause_ to consider, _in that sleep of death what
dreams may come_. This consideration _makes calamity_ so long endured;
for _who would bear_ the vexations of life, which might be ended _by a
bare bodkin_, but that he is afraid of something in unknown futurity?
This fear it is that gives efficacy to conscience, which, by turning the
mind upon _this regard_, chills the ardour of _resolution_, checks the
vigour of _enterprize_, and makes the _current_ of desire stagnate in
inactivity. We may suppose that he would have applied these general
observations to his own case, but that he discovered Ophelia.
III.i.59 (234,8) Or to take arms against a sea of troubles] [W: against
assail] Mr. Pope proposed _siege_. I know not why there should be so
much solicitude about this metaphor. Shakespeare breaks his metaphors
often, and in this desultory speech there was less need of preserving
them.
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