The following English Authors have either written treatises on suicide, or else have made mention of it in their works.
The list is of course not complete, but it represents the views of many writers of eminence from the time of Henry the Eighth to a recent date.
Sir Thomas More, in his “Utopia,” dated 1516, Book II., writes: “But yf the disease be not onelye yncurable, but also full of contynuall payne and anguishe; ... and seinge his lyffe to him is but a tormente, that he wyl not bee vnwillinge to dye, but rather take a good hope to him, and either dispatche himselfe out of that payneful lyffe, as out of a prison, or racke of torment, or elles suffer hymselfe wyllinglye to be ridde oute of it by other.”
These lines are from the English translation by Ralph Robinson, 1551.
Shakespeare (d. 1616) in “Julius Cæsar,” Act V. Scene 1., makes Brutus say:─
“Even by the rule of that philosophy,
By which I did blame Cato for the death
He gave himself:─I know not how,
But I do find it cowardly and vile,
For fear of what might fall, so to prevent