already
wandered too much into details; yet I must, however, bring _Falstaff_
forward to this last scene of trial in all his proper colouring and
proportions. The progressive discovery of _Falstaff_'s character is
excellently managed.--In the first scene we become acquainted with his
figure, which we must in some degree consider as a part of his character;
we hear of his gluttony and his debaucheries, and become witnesses of that
indistinguishable mixture of humour and licentiousness which runs through
his whole character; but what we are principally struck with, is the ease
of his manners and deportment, and the unaffected freedom and wonderful
pregnancy of his wit and humour. We see him, in the next scene, agitated
with vexation: His horse is concealed from him, and he gives on this
occasion so striking a description of his distress, and his words so
labour and are so loaded with heat and vapour, that, but for laughing, we
should pity him; laugh, however, we must at the extreme incongruity of a
man, at once corpulent and old, associating with youth in an enterprize
demanding the utmost extravagance of spirit, and all the wildness of
activity: And this it is which make his complaints so truly ridiculous.
"_Give me my horse!_" says he, in another spirit than that of _Richard_;
"_Eight yards of uneven ground_," adds this _Forrester of Diana_, this
_enterprising gentleman of the shade_, "_is threescore and ten miles
__A-FOOT__ with me._"--In the heat and agitation of the robbery, out comes
more and more extravagant instances of incongruity. Though he is most
probably older and much fatter than either of the travellers, yet he calls
them, _Bacons, Bacon-fed, and gorbellied knaves_: "_Hang them_," says he,
"_fat chuffs, they hate us youth: What! young men, must live:--You are
grand Jurors, are ye? We'll jure ye, i' faith._" But, as yet, we do not
see the whole length and breadth of him: This is reserved for the
braggadocio scene. We expect entertainment, but we don't well know of what
kind. _Poins_, by his prediction, has given us a hint: But we do not see
or feel _Falstaff_ to be a Coward, much less a boaster; without which even
Cowardice is not sufficiently ridiculous; and therefore it is, that on the
stage we find them always connected. In this uncertainty on our part, he
is, with much artful preparation, produced.--His entrance is delayed to
stimulate our expectation; and, at last, to take off the dullness of
anticipation