tamp of one defect;
Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,--
Their virtues else (be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as man may undergo)
Shall in the general censure take corruption
From that particular fault...."

Even the idea that "nature cannot choose its origin" is suggested by the
context in Montaigne.[42] Shakspere's estimate of Caesar, of course,
diverged from that of the essay.

X. I find a certain singularity of coincidence between the words of King
Claudius on kingship:

"There's such divinity doth hedge a king,
That treason can but peep to what it would,
Acts little of his will,"

and a passage in the essay[43] OF THE INCOMMODITY OF GREATNESS:

"To be a king, is a matter of that consequence, that only by
it he is so. That strange glimmering and eye-dazzling light,
which round about environeth, over-casteth and hideth from
us: our weak sight is thereby bleared and dissipated, as
being filled and obscured by that greater and
further-spreading brightness."

The working out of the metaphor here gives at once to Shakspere's terms
"divinity" and "can but peep" a point not otherwise easily seen; but the
idea of a dazzling light may be really what was meant in the play; and
one is tempted to pronounce the passage a reminiscence of Montaigne.
Here, however, it has to be noted that in the First Quarto we have the
lines:

"There's such divinity doth wall a king
That treason dares not look on."

And if Shakspere had not seen or heard the passage in Montaigne before
the publication of Florio's folio--which, however, he may very well have
done--the theory of reminiscence here cannot stand.

XI. In Hamlet's soliloquy on the passage of the army of Fortinbras--one
of the many passages added in the Second Quarto--there is a strong
general resemblance to a passage in the essay OF DIVERSION.[44] Hamlet
first remarks to the Captain:

"Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats
Will not debate the question of this straw:
This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace;"

and afterwards soliloquises:

"Examples gross as earth exhort me:
Witness, this army of such mass and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender prince,
Whose spirit, by divine ambition puff'd,
Makes mouths at the invisible event;
Exposing what is mortal and unsure
To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great,
Is not to stir witho