ther with judgment and
voluntary liberty apply ourselves unto them, we ought
somewhat to yield unto the simple authority of Nature, but
not suffer her tyrannically to carry us away; only reason
ought to have the conduct of our inclinations."

Finally we have a third parallel, with a slight coincidence of terms, in
the essay[52] OF GIVING THE LIE:

"Nature hath endowed us with a large faculty to entertain
ourselves apart, and often calleth us unto it, to teach us
that partly we owe ourselves unto society, but in the better
part unto ourselves."

It may be argued that these, like one or two of the other sayings above
cited as echoed by Shakspere from Montaigne, are of the nature of
general religious or ethical maxims, traceable to no one source; and if
we only found one or two such parallels, their resemblance of course
would have no evidential value, save as regards coincidence of terms.
For this very passage, for instance, there is a classic original, or at
least a familiar source, in Cicero,[53] where the commonplace of the
contrast between man and beast is drawn in terms that come in a general
way pretty close to Hamlet's. This treatise of Cicero was available to
Shakspere in several English translations;[54] and only the fact that we
find no general trace of Cicero in the play entitles us to suggest a
connection in this special case with Montaigne, of whom we do find so
many other traces. It is easy besides to push the theory of any
influence too far; and when for instance we find Hamlet saying he fares
"Of the chameleon's dish: I eat the air, promise-crammed," it would be
as idle to assume a reminiscence of a passage of Montaigne on the
chameleon[55] as it would be to derive Hamlet's phrase "A king of shreds
and patches" from Florio's rendering in the essay[56] OF THE INCONSTANCY
OF OUR ACTIONS:

"We are all framed of flaps and patches, and of so
shapeless and diverse a contexture, that every piece and
every moment playeth his part."

In the latter case we have a mere coincidence of idiom; in the former a
proverbial allusion.[57] An uncritical pursuit of such mere accidents of
resemblance has led Mr. Feis to such enormities as the assertion that
Shakspere's contemporaries knew Hamlet's use of his tablets to be a
parody of the "much-scribbling Montaigne," who had avowed that he made
much use of his; the assertion that Ophelia's "Come, my coach!" has
reference to Montaigne's remark that he