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his death. The critic calls this indecent, but fays it has nothing to 

 do with his courage. I think othervvife. This is one of thofe cafes 

 where a certain principle of adion, befide its own immediate 

 eiFeds, draws after it other confequences which have a very near 

 affinity with it; the connedion between the primary and fe- 

 condary adions is here infeparablc. To run away armed from 

 a living man, or to efcape by counterfeiting death, are dired 

 ads of cowardice. To ftab a dead man is equally fo, though 

 not diredly. For I afk, is it poffible for fuch an idea to enter 

 into the mind of a brave man ? or of any man, except the bafeft 

 coward ? I am not fure whether the charge of cowardice, fo 

 inferred, be not full as ftrong as any can be, though founded 

 upon a dired and immediate courfe of adion. This, I fay, fup- 

 pofmg the adion to be cowardly by inference only ; but perhaps 

 this would be conceding too much, if we confider FalftafFs 

 avowed motive on this occafion : " I am afraid," fays he, " of 

 " this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead ; therefore I'll make 

 " him fure : yea and I'll fwear I killed him. Why may he not 

 " rife as well as I ? Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody 

 " fees me ; therefore, firrah, with a new wound in your thigh, 

 " come you along with me." Hence it appears that he ftabbed him 

 partly for the full affurance of his own perfonal fafety, although 

 his apprehenfions were in themfelves fo groundlefs and impro- 

 bable, that none but a coward's heart could entertain them. 

 The writer has with delicate judgment flurred this matter over ; 

 and I wi/h his whimfical theory had not obliged me to unfold 

 an adion of fuch a nature, but there was no paffing it by, for 

 it fpeaks too plainly the poet's defign as to the charader. 



( E ) I HAVE 



