ome defect supposed unknown to the hearers; and these hearers
were, in the present case, his constant companions, and the daily
witnesses of his conduct. If before this period he had been a known and
detected Coward, and was conscious that he had no credit to lose, I see no
reason why he should fly so violently from a familiar ignominy which had
often before attacked him; or why falshoods, seemingly in such a case
neither calculated for or expecting credit, should be censured, or
detected, as lyes or imposition.

That the whole transaction was considered as a mere jest, and as carrying
with it no serious imputation on the Courage of _Falstaff_, is manifest,
not only from his being allowed, when the laugh was past, to call himself,
without contradiction in the personated character of _Hal_ himself,
"valiant _Jack Falstaff, and the more __VALIANT__ being, as he is_, old
Jack Falstaff," but from various other particulars, and, above all, from
the declaration, which the Prince makes on that very night, of his
intention of procuring this _fat rogue a Charge of foot_;--a circumstance,
doubtless, contrived by _Shakespeare_ to wipe off the seeming dishonour of
the day: And from this time forward we hear of no imputation arising from
this transaction; it is born and dies in a convivial hour; it leaves no
trace behind, nor do we see any longer in the character of _Falstaff_ the
boasting or braggadocio of a Coward.

Tho' I have considered _Falstaff_'s character as relative only to one
single quality, yet so much has been said, that it cannot escape the
reader's notice that he is a character made up by _Shakespeare_ wholly of
incongruities;--a man at once young and old, enterprizing and fat, a dupe
and a wit, harmless and wicked, weak in principle and resolute by
constitution, cowardly in appearance and brave in reality; a knave without
malice, a lyar without deceit; and a knight, a gentleman, and a soldier,
without either dignity, decency, or honour: This is a character, which,
though it may be de-compounded, could not, I believe, have been formed,
nor the ingredients of it duly mingled, upon any receipt whatever: It
required the hand of _Shakespeare_ himself to give to every particular
part a relish of the whole, and of the whole to every particular
part;--alike the same incongruous, identical _Falstaff_, whether to the
grave Chief Justice he vainly talks of his youth, and offers to _caper for
a thousand_; or cries to Mrs. _Doll_