eir own purpose, and
are clearly not the effect, in this respect, of a regulated practice, and
a habit of imposition. The real truth seems to be, that had _Falstaff_,
loose and unprincipled as he is, been born a Coward and bred a Soldier, he
must, naturally, have been a great _Braggadocio_, a true _miles
gloriosus_. But in such case he should have been exhibited active and
young; for it is plain that age and corpulency are an excuse for
Cowardice, which ought not to be afforded him. In the present case,
wherein he was not only involved in suspicious circumstances, but wherein
he seems to have felt some conscious touch of infirmity, and having no
candid construction to expect from his laughing companions, he bursts at
once, and with all his might, into the most unweighed and preposterous
fictions, determined to put to proof on this occasion his boasted talent
of _swearing truth out of England_. He tried it here, to its utmost
extent, and was unfortunately routed on his own ground; which indeed, with
such a mine beneath his feet, could not be otherwise. But without this, he
had mingled in his deceits so much whimsical humour and fantastic
exaggeration that he must have been detected; and herein appears the
admirable address of _Shakespeare_, who can shew us _Falstaff_ in the
various light, not only of what he is, but what he would have been under
one single variation of character,--the want of natural Courage; whilst
with an art not enough understood, he most effectually preserves the real
character of _Falstaff_ even in the moment he seems to depart from it, by
making his lyes too extravagant for practised imposition; by grounding
them more upon humour than deceit; and turning them, as we shall next see,
into a fair and honest proof of general Courage, by appropriating them to
the concealment only of a single exception. And hence it is, that we see
him draw so deeply and so confidently upon his former credit for Courage
and atchievment: "_I never dealt better in my life,--thou know'st my old
ward, Hal_," are expressions which clearly refer to some known feats and
defences of his former life. His exclamations against Cowardice, his
reference to his own manhood, "_Die when thou wilt, old __JACK__, if
manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the earth, then am I
a shotten herring_": These, and various expressions such as these, would
be absurdities not impositions, Farce not Comedy, if not calculated to
conceal s