_Alcibiades._ Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood? To kill, I grant, is sin’s extremest gust; But, in defence, by mercy ’tis most just. _Timon of Athens_, Act iii. Scene 5. It is said that it must be a killing upon an inevitable necessity; but necessity implies that the act was inevitable, or that it could not have been otherwise. The party assaulted is not to be excused, unless he gives back to the wall, hedge, river, &c., beyond which he cannot go, before he kills the other. But if A assault B so fiercely and violently, and in such a place, and in such a manner as, if B should give back, he should be in danger of his life, he may in this case defend himself, and if in that defence he killeth A, it is se defendendo, because it is not done felleo animo: for the rule is, when he doth it in his own defence, upon any inevitable cause, Quod quis ob tutelam corporis sui fecerit, jure id fecisse videtur (H. P. C. 41, 42; 3 Inst. 55, 56). What any one may have done for the protection of his person, is considered to have been done by law. _Enter two_ Clowns, _with Spades, &c._ _1 Clo._ Is she to be buried in Christian burial, that wilfully seeks her own salvation? _2 Clo._ I tell thee, she is; and therefore make her grave straight: the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial. _1 Clo._ How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence? _2 Clo._ Why, ’tis found so. _1 Clo._ It must be se offendendo; it cannot be else. For here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act: and an act has three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform: argal, she drowned herself wittingly. _2 Clo._ Nay, but hear you, goodman delver. _1 Clo._ Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good: if the man go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes; mark you that? but if the water come to him, and drown him, he drowns not himself; argal, he that is not guilty of his own death, shortens not his own life. _2 Clo._ But is this law? _1 Clo._ Ay, marry, is’t; crowner’s-quest law. _Hamlet_, Act v. Scene 1.