Were brass impregnable; and, humour'd thus,
Comes at the last, and with a little pin[1]
Bores through his castle wall, and--farewell, King!"
[Footnote 1: In Hamlet's famous soliloquy the pin is a "bodkin."]

Let us take another two lines of this soliloquy:

"For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings."

In the second scene of the third act of "Titus Andronicus" we find Titus
saying to his daughter:

"I'll to thy closet; and go read with thee
Sad stories chanced in the times of old."

Again, in the "Comedy of Errors," AEgeon tells us that his life was
prolonged:

"To tell sad stories of my own mishaps."

The similarity of these passages shows that in the very spring of life
and heyday of the blood Shakespeare had in him a certain romantic
melancholy which was developed later by the disappointments of life into
the despairing of Macbeth and Lear.

When the Bishop calls upon Richard to act, the King's weathercock mind
veers round again, and he cries:

"This ague fit of fear is over-blown,