primary design! For this end, he has deprived _Falstaff_ of every good
principle; and for another, which will be presently mentioned, he has
concealed every bad one. He has given him also every infirmity of body
that is not likely to awaken our compassion, and which is most proper to
render both his better qualities and his vices ridiculous: he has
associated levity and debauch with _age_, corpulence and inactivity with
_courage_, and has roguishly coupled the gout with _Military honours_, and
a _pension_ with the _pox_. He has likewise involved this character in
situations, out of which neither wit nor Courage can extricate him with
honour. The surprize at _Gads-Hill_ might have betrayed a hero into
flight, and the encounter with _Douglas_ left him no choice but death or
stratagem. If he plays an after-game, and endeavours to redeem his ill
fortune by lies and braggadocio, his ground fails him; no wit, no evasion
will avail: Or is he likely to appear respectable in his person, rank, and
demeanor, how is that respect abated or discharged! _Shakespeare_ has
given him a kind of state indeed; but of what is it composed? Of that
fustian cowardly rascal _Pistol_, and his yoke-fellow of few words, the
equally deed-less _Nym_; of his cup-bearer the fiery _Trigon_, whose zeal
burns in his nose, _Bardolph_; and of the boy, who bears the purse with
_seven groats and two-pence_;--a boy who was given him on purpose to set
him off, and whom he walks _before_, according to his own description,
"_like a sow that had overwhelmed all her litter but one_."

But it was not enough to render _Falstaff_ ridiculous in his figure,
situations, and equipage; _still_ his respectable qualities would have
come forth, at least occasionally, to spoil our mirth; or they might have
burst the intervention of such slight impediments, and have every where
shone through: It was necessary then to go farther, and throw on him that
substantial ridicule, which only the incongruities of real vice can
furnish; of vice, which was to be so mixed and blended with his frame as
to give a durable character and colour to the whole.

But it may here be necessary to detain the reader a moment in order to
apprize him of my further intention; without which, I might hazard that
good understanding, which I hope has hitherto been preserved between us.

I have 'till now looked only to the Courage of _Falstaff_, a quality
which, having been denied, in terms, to belong to his c