David and Ben Crystal in their wonderful Shakespeare’s Words: a Glossary & Language Companion* confirm your lookup of fardel as burden, load, bundle.

Billy also used the word in Winter’s Tale:

[Autolycus to Shepherd] The fardel there, what’s i’th’ fardel?


* http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=1176741


> but thinking makes it so

Many read this whole speech as an exposition of a profoundly existential exploration of his predicament.