380 A Century of Science 



at the junction of crossroads, with a stake through 

 his body, while all his property was forfeited to the 

 Crown. Presently his widow brought suit for an 

 estate by survivorship in joint-tenancy. Her case 

 turned upon the question whether the forfeiture 

 occurred during her late husband's lifetime : if it 

 did, he left no estate which she could take ; if it 

 did not, she took the estate by survivorship. The 

 lady's counsel argued that so long as Sir James 

 was alive he had not been guilty of suicide, and 

 the instant he died the estate vested in his widow 

 as joint-tenant. But the opposing counsel argued 

 that the instant Sir James voluntarily made the 

 fatal plunge, and therefore before the breath had 

 left his body, the guilt of suicide was incurred and 

 the forfeiture took place. The court decided in 

 favour of this view, and the widow got nothing. 



There can be little doubt that this decision is 

 travestied in the conversation of the two clowns in 

 "Hamlet" with regard to Ophelia's right to Chris- 

 tian burial. The first clown makes precisely the 

 point upon which the ingenious counsel for the de- 

 fendant had rested his argument : " If I drown 

 myself wittingly, it argues an act, and an act hath 

 three branches ; it is to act, to do, and to perform." 

 In making this distinction the counsel had main- 

 tained that the second branch, or the doing, was 



