Meaning & Analysis
A declaration to face whatever future events may occur, expressing a readiness to accept any outcome, good or bad.
Insights
Resolute Determination
Expresses a speaker's firm resolve to proceed with a chosen course of action, regardless of potential obstacles or consequences. It is a statement of unwavering will in the face of the unknown.
Fatalistic Acceptance
Symbolizes a surrender to destiny or fate, suggesting that future events are beyond one's control and must simply be endured. This reflects a passive resignation to fortune.
Stoic Endurance
Reflects a philosophical stance of accepting fortune with equanimity and without complaint, embodying emotional resilience and steadfastness in the face of uncertainty.
Reckless Defiance
Can signify a careless or impulsive attitude, where an individual proceeds without regard for the risks, embracing chaos or uncertainty with a sense of abandon.
Renaissance Worldview
Heavily used in Elizabethan and Shakespearean literature, this phrase captures the era's deep engagement with themes of fate, free will, and fortune. Its frequent appearance in drama, as in Macbeth's "Come what come may," often signals a character's pivotal, often risky, decision.
Psychological Defense
The proverb functions as a psychological coping mechanism for managing anxiety about the unknown. By verbalizing acceptance of any outcome, an individual can create a sense of control or courage when facing overwhelming uncertainty.
Moral Imperative
When paired with ideas like the cross-referenced "Do what you ought," the proverb gains a moral dimension. It shifts from pure fatalism to a principle of acting virtuously and then accepting the consequences, whatever they may be.
Rhetorical Devices
Emphatic Repetition
The tautological structure ("Come what come") creates a powerful, incantatory rhythm that emphasizes the inevitability of the future and the speaker's resolve or resignation.
Archaic Diction
The use of "hap" (meaning chance or fortune) in older versions connects the expression to medieval concepts of fortune's wheel, adding a layer of historical and philosophical depth.
Alliteration
The alliteration in "Come what come" and "Hap what hap" lends the phrase a memorable, poetic quality that enhances its rhetorical force and makes it easy to recall.
Transcription
Quotations
Hap what hap may.
I care not, sayd Rychard, hap as it hap wyll.
Happe that happe maye.
Come what come wold.
Ile colefeke him my selfe forte come onte what will.
Hap what hap can, I can never hap well in favour with him againe.
Let hap what hap will, thou hast promised to be mine.
He was so puffed vp with wrath and choller, as hap what hap would, he fell into these tearmes.
Come what will, Ile make a way.
Let come what will, I meant to beare it out.
Instantly sue out a diuorce, hap what hap shall.
Come what will, Ile tempt my fortune, once.
Do what thou oughtest, let come what will come.
Come on't what will come; We must take our chance.
Shakespeare Citations
O, let me stay, befall what may befall!
If thou wilt not, befall what may befall, I'll speak no more.
Cried, ‘Via! we will do't, come what will come!’
Befall what will befall.
Hap what hap may, I'll roundly go about her.
Well, come what will, I'll tarry at home.
Let come what comes.
But come what may, I do adore thee so That danger shall seem sport.
I'll bring him the best 'parel that I have, Come on't what will.
Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
Come what can come, The worst is death.
Then come what can come Thou shalt know, Palamon, I dare as well Die as discourse or sleep.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.