Set honour in one eye, and death i’ the other,
And I will look on both indifferently:
For let the gods so speed me, as I love
The name of honour more than I fear death.
(I. ii. 85.)
This elevated way of thinking has been fostered and confirmed by study, just as in the case of Sidney, and by study of much the same kind. Plutarch says:
Now touching the Greecian Philosophers, there was no sect nor Philosopher of them, but he heard and liked it: but above all the rest, he loved Platoes sect best, and did not much give himself to the new or meane Academy as they call it, but altogether to the old Academy.
He has striven to direct his life by right reason, and has pondered its problems under the guidance of his chosen masters. His utterance, which Plutarch quotes, on suicide, shows how he has sought Plato’s aid for a standard by which to judge others and himself.[175] His utterance, which Shakespeare invents, on the death of Portia, shows how he has schooled himself to fortitude, and suggests the influence of a different school.
We must die, Messala:
With meditating that she must die once,