An Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff (1777)

Abstract

Maurice Morgann presents an essay on the dramatic character of Sir John Falstaff, where the ideas which he formed concerning the courage and military character of the dramatic Falstaff are so different from those which he find generally to prevail in the world. He do not clearly discern that Falstaff deserves to bear the character so generally given him of an absolute coward; or, in other words, that he do not conceive Shakespeare ever meant to make cowardice an essential part of his constitution. Though he had considered Falstaff's character as relative only to one single quality, he is a character made up by Shakespeare wholly of incongruities that is a man at once young and old, enterprising and fat, a dupe and a wit, harmless and wicked, cowardly in appearance and brave in reality, a knave without malice, a liar without deceit, and a knight, a gentleman, and a soldier without either dignity, decency, or honor.

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