great warrior's memory to make him a
'Thrasonical puff and emblem of mock-valour.'

The offending introduction and withdrawal of Oldcastle's name left a
curious mark on literary history. Humbler dramatists (Munday, Wilson,
Drayton, and Hathaway), seeking to profit by the attention drawn by
Shakespeare to the historical Oldcastle, produced a poor dramatic version
of Oldcastle's genuine history; and of two editions of 'Sir John
Oldcastle' published in 1600, one printed for T[homas] P[avier] was
impudently described on the title-page as by Shakespeare.

But it is not the historical traditions which are connected with Falstaff
that give him his perennial attraction. It is the personality that owes
nothing to history with which Shakespeare's imaginative power clothed
him. The knight's unfettered indulgence in sensual pleasures, his
exuberant mendacity, and his love of his own ease are purged of offence
by his colossal wit and jollity, while the contrast between his old age
and his unreverend way of life supplies that tinge of melancholy which is
inseparable from the highest manifestations of humour. The Elizabethan
public recognised the triumphant success of the effort, and many of
Falstaff's telling phrases, with the names of his foils, Justice Shallow
and Silence, at once took root in popular speech. Shakespeare's purely
comic power culminated in Falstaff; he may be claimed as the most
humorous figure in literature.

'Merry Wives of Windsor.'

In all probability 'The Merry Wives of Windsor,' a comedy inclining to
farce, and unqualified by any pathetic interest, followed close upon
'Henry IV.' In the epilogue to the 'Second Part of Henry IV' Shakespeare
had written: 'If you be not too much cloyed with fat meat, our humble
author will continue the story with Sir John in it . . . where for
anything I know Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already a' be
killed with your hard opinions.' Rowe asserts that 'Queen Elizabeth was
so well pleased with that admirable character of Falstaff in the two
parts of "Henry IV" that she commanded him to continue it for one play
more, and to show him in love.' Dennis, in the dedication of 'The
Comical Gallant' (1702), noted that the 'Merry Wives' was written at the
Queen's 'command and by her direction; and she was so eager to see it
acted that she commanded it to be finished in fourteen days, and was
afterwards, as tradition tells us, very well pleased with the
represent