And in Act III., Scene 1, is found the long passage commencing, “To be, or not to be; that is the question;─” in which the relative merits of life and death are discussed.
In “Othello,” Act I., Scene 3, he makes Roderigo say, “I will incontinently drown myself.” “It is silliness to live when to live is a torment;” to which Iago replies, “a pox on drowning thyself! it is clean out of the way: seek thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy, than to be drowned and go without her.”
Dr. John Donne, d. 1631, wrote an essay on this subject, entitled ‘βιαθανατοσ, or That self-slaying is not so naturally sin that it may never be otherwise.
Massinger, the Dramatist, d. 1640.
“This Roman resolution of self-murder
Will not hold water at the High Tribunal
When it comes to be argued; my good genius
Prompts me to this consideration. He
That kills himself t’avoid misery, fears it;
And at the best shows a bastard valour.”