[ ^3 ] 



counfellor or a foldier. All this, I think, was defigned to throw 

 a buftle and importance round his character. There is nothing, 

 indeed, fo very ftrange or indecent in his attending the prince 

 in the camp at Shrewfbury ; where, by the way, we may obferve 

 he gives no fort of advice, but mixes his humour with their 

 moft important councils. Can any one ferioufly imagine that he 

 was called into the king's prefence from a regard to his merit? 

 If there were any reafon for introducing him, it was probably to 

 raife a laugh againft the rebels ; but, indeed, I look upon his 

 prefence as a matter of courfe, a part of the prince's train, who 

 was too fond of his company to facrifice it to every little pundlilio 

 of decorum. Befides, if the king be fuppofed to have known any 

 thing of Falflaif, his corrupting of the prince, his licentious 

 manners and fcandalous debaucheries muft have been at leafl as 

 notorious as his pretended military merit ; and therefore it would 

 have been equally indecent to give him the fandlion of his coun- 

 tenance, as if he were the moft arrant coward. The ingenious 

 writer will anfwer, " That in camps there is but one virtue 

 " and one vice : military merit fwallows up or covers all." What- 

 ever force might be in this obfervation, made in the field at large, 

 I apprehend that it cannot apply in the prefent inftance. A king 

 unconcerned in FalftafF's moral charafler, might, in public emer- 

 gencies, overlook his vices that he may profit by his talents. But 

 king Henry was deeply affeded by the prince's loofe behaviour, 

 and by the rude and barren fociety to which he refigned himfelf. 

 We have abundant proof of this in his whole condud, particu- 

 larly in his pathetic addreffes to him. It would therefore be an 

 infult on his majefty to bring " that reverend vice, that father 

 " ruffian," before him with any ferious defign. Flere, indeed, 



would 



