1810.] 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
the CHARACTER Of SIR 
FALSTAFF, 
LETTER I, 
HE plays in which we should con- 
template the character of Falstaff, 
are the two Parts of Henry 1V. We see 
him again indeed in the * Merry Wives 
of Wiadsor,” and with greacsatisfaction ; 
but he is in fetters. He might sav of 
himself, as after the exploit at Gadshill, 
** Am not [fallen away? do notI bate? 
do not I dwindle? Why my skin hangs 
about me like an old lady’s loose gown 1” 
His meanderings are reduced to a 
straight course, and we scarcely recoy- 
nise the beauty of the stream. Our 
memorable queen, when she requested 
to see Falstaff in love, appears to me (to 
use a vulgar but pertinent expressiun) 
to have ‘‘ mistaken her man.” Eccen- 
tricity of affection was expected ; and, 
as might have been foreseen, we are 
presented only with his avarice. 
But to return: the two Parts of 
Henry IV. are, beyond a doubt, the 
most diversified, in point of character and 
language, of any of the historical plays 
of our great dramatist.. Who does not 
marshal in his mind the spirits of ‘that 
‘same mad fellow of the north, Percy ;” 
“of him of Wales, that gave Amaimon 
the bastinado, Owen Glendower;” and 
On 
JOHN 
** his son-in-law, Mortimer; and old Nor- 
thumberland; and the sprightly Scot of 
Scots, Douglas?’ Who cannot. paint 
to himself ‘* that goodly portly man, sir 
John ;” the chief justice, (sir William 
Gascoigne) ; and that whoreson mad 
compound of majesty, Prince Henry, 
who, as he himseif observes, had 
** sounded the very base-string of humi- 
lity?” Or, who cannot conjure up the 
manes of the knight’s myrmidons, swag- 
gering Pistol,* Poins, Peto, and honest 
* Pistol is a very remarkable character. 
He seems to bea ranting spouter of sentences 
and hard words, unconnected and unintelli- 
gible; and was introduced by Shakespeare for 
the purpose of ridiculing the/bombast absur- 
dities of his cotemporary dramatic writers. 
If this was really the object of the character, 
it must have had a wonderful ‘effect at its 
first performance, when the plays of Cophe- 
tua, Battle of Alcazer, Tamburlain’s Con- 
quests, &c. from all which Pistol makes quo- 
tations, were before the public. It strikes 
me likewise as a very ingenious method of 
silencing the whole train of envious scribblers 
| Shakespeare's Character of Sir John Falstaff. 9 
Bardolph,* ‘¢ whose zeal burned in his’ 
nose ;” and who, as his master remarks, 
*‘ but for the light in his face, would be 
the son of utter darkness:” and to close 
the catalogue, mine hostess of the Bear’s 
Head !avernin Eastcheap, good mistress 
Quickly; Francis, with his everlasting 
ery of Anon, anon, sir!” the ‘genius of 
famine,’ master Robert Shallow; and 
Justice Silence, whom, as sir Jchn told 
hun, ‘* it well befitted to be of the 
peace ;” with the ever-memorable list of 
Gloucestershire recruits. Amongst all 
these interesting personages, however, 
he who most attracts our notice, and best 
repays our -atteution, is sir John 
Falstaff : 
/ - aynp Hug TE, MEYLS TE, 
Apvelon faly Eymye ELoKW TuyETtAGrAD, 
1), it. 797. 
Nor do those persons do him justice, 
who regard him as a character whose 
sole constituents are vice and low buf= 
foonery. ‘This was not the intention of 
Shakespeare. Those who are possessed 
of a natural vein of humour, no less 
than those who constantly aifect it, will 
sometimes detect themselves in a strain 
of ‘quips and cranks’, whose object is 
“* to set on some quantity of barren specs 
tators to laugh.” Falstaff’s wit is often, 
it must be confessed, of an illegitimate 
kind; yet the general character of his 
pleasantry, and the good sense so fre- 
quently sparkling from under bis singular 
quaintness, prove that the poet intended 
him to have the credit of considerable 
abilities, however unusual or misem= 
ployed. To cancel the imputation of 
perpetual buffoonery, an idea originating 
in the misconception of these who per- 
sonate him on the stage, or would paint 
him like Bunbury, we must recollect 
that, although he possessed none of those 
Tecommendations which are implied in 
* The character of Bardo'ph is’ one of 
those bold dashes of the pencil, which our 
great painter from nature so frequently exhi- 
bits. His great attachment to Falstaff is 
admirably described. When he is told of the 
knight’s death, he exclaims, ** Would I were 
with him wheresome’er he is, either in hea- 
ven orin hell!” ‘he same insight into his 
character is given by anotlier single expression. 
When the prince tells Falstaff of his favour 
with his father, Falstaff »ecommends the 
robbery of the exchequer; ‘* Rob me the 
exchequer, Hal, and do it with unwashed 
hands too?” Bardolps, pleased with the 
which his genius would otherwise have ,proposal, instantly seconds it with, ** Do, my 
brought upon his own back. 
Montuty Mac. No. 402, 
lora |” 
B the 
