What! old acquaintance! could not all this fefa The Prince seems always diverted, rather than feduced by Falstaffe; he defpifes his Vices while he is entertained by his Humour: and though Falstaffe is for a while a stain upon his character, yet it is of a kind with thofe colours, which are used for a disguise in fport, being of fuch a nature as are easily washed out, without leaving any bad tincture. And we fee. Henry, as foon as he is called to the high and serious duties of a King, come forth at once with unblemished majefty. The difpofition of the Hero is made to pierce through the idle frolics of the Boy, throughout the whole piece; for his reformation is not effected in the last scene of the laft act, as is ufual in our Comedies, but is prepared from the very beginning of the play, The scene between the Prince and Francis, is low and ridiculous, and feems one of the greatest indecorums of the piece; at the fame time the attentive Spectator will find the purpose of it is to fhew him, that Henry was was studying human nature, in all her variety of tempers and faculties, I am now, fays he, acquainted with all humours, meaning difpofitions) fince the days of good man Adam to the prefent hour. In the play of Henry V. you are told, that in his youth he had been fedulously obferving mankind; and from an apprehenfion, per haps, how difficult it was to acquire an intimate knowledge of men, whilst he kept up the forms his rank prefcribed, he waved the ceremonies and decorums of his fituation, and familiarly conversed with all orders of fociety. The jealousy his father had conceived of him would probably have been increased, if he had affected such a sort of popularity as would have gained the esteem, as well as love of the multitude. Whether Henry, in the early part of his life, was indulging a humour that inclined him to low and wild company, or endeavouring to acquire a deeper and more extenfive knowledge of human nature, by a general acquaintance with mankind, is the bufi nefs nefs of his hiftorians to determine. But a critic must surely applaud the dexterity of Shakespear for throwing this colour over that part of his conduct; whether he seized on some intimations historians had given of that fort, or, of himself imagined so respectable a motive for the Prince's deviations from the dignity of his birth. This piece must have delighted the people at the time it was written, as the Follies of their favourite character were fo managed, that they rather feemed foils to fet off its Virtues, than ftains which obfcured them. Whether we confider the character of Falstaffe as adapted to encourage and excufe the extravagancies of the Prince, or by itfelf, we must certainly admire it, and own it to be perfectly original, The profeffed Wit, either in life or on the stage, is usually fevere and fatirical. But Mirth is the fource of Falstaffe's Wit. He seems rather to invite you to partake of his merriment, than to attend to his jeft; a man a man must be ill-natured, as well as dull, who does not join in the mirth of this jovial companion, the best calculated in all refpects, to raise Laughter of any that ever appeared on a stage, He joins the finesse of Wit to the drollery of Humour. Humour is a kind of grotesque Wit, shaped and coloured by the difpofition of the person in whom it refides, or by the subject to which it is applied. It is oftenest found in odd and irregular minds: but this peculiar turn diftorts, wit, and though it gives it a burlesque air, which excites momentary mirth, renders it lefs juft, and confequently lefs agreeable to our judgments. Gluttony, corpulency, and cowardice, are the peculiarities of Falstaffe's compofition: they render him ridiculous without folly, throw an air of jest and festivity about him, and make his manners fuit with his fentiments, without giving to his understanding any particular bias. As the contempt attendant on thefe vices and defects is the best antidote against any infec tion tion that might be caught in his fociety, fo it was very skilful to make him as ridi culous as witty, and as contemptible as entertaining. The admirable fpeech upon honour would have been both indecent and dangerous from any other perfon. We muft allow his wit is every where just, his humour genuine, his character perfectly original, and fuftained through every scene, in every play, in which it appears. As Falftaffe, whom the author certainly intended to be perfectly witty, is lefs addicted to quibble and play on words, than any of his comic characters, I think we may fairly conclude, our author was fenfible that it was but a falfe kind of wit, which he practised from the hard neceffity of the times for in that age, the Profeffor quibbled in his chair, the Judge quibbled on the bench, the Prelate quibbled in the pulpit, the Statesman quibbled at the council-board; nay, even Majefty quibbled on the Throne. |