No. LXXIII,

WHEN it had entered into the mind of Shakespear, to form an historical play upon certain events in the reign of Henry the fourth of England, the character of the Prince of Wales recommended itself to his fancy, as likely to fupply him with a fund of dramatic incidents; for what could invention have more happily fuggested than this character, which history presented ready to his hands? a riotous diforderly young libertine, in whose nature lay hidden those feeds of heroifm and ambition, which were to burst forth at once to the astonishment of the world, and to atchieve the conqueft of France. This prince, whofe character was destined to exhibit a revolution of fo brilliant a fort, was not only in himself a very tempting hero for the dramatic poet, who delights in incidents of novelty and furprize, but also offered to his imagination a train of attendant characters, in the perfons of his wild comrades and affociates, which would be of themselves a drama. Here was a field

for

for invention wide enough even for the genius of Shakespear to range in. All the humours, paffions and extravagancies of human life might be brought into the compofition, and when he had grouped and perfonified them to his taste and liking, he had a leader ready to place at the head of the train, and the truth of history to give life and intereft to his drama.

With these materials ready for creation the great artist fate down to his work; the canvafs was spread before him, ample and capacious as the expanfe of his own fancy; nature put her pencil into his hand, and he began to sketch. His first concern was to give a chief or captain to this gang of rioters; this would naturally be the firft outline he drew. To fill up the drawing of this perfonage he conceived a voluptuary, in whofe figure and character there fhould be an affemblage of comic qualities; in his perfon he fhould be bloated and blown up to the fize of a Silenus, lazy, luxurious, in fenfuality a fatyr, in intemperance a bacchanalian: As he was to ftand in the poft of a ringleader amongft thieves and cutpurfes, he made him a notorious liar, a fwaggerVOL. III. H

ing

ing coward, vain-glorious, arbitrary, knavish, crafty, voracious of plunder, lavish of his gains, without credit, honour or honesty, and in debt to every body about him: As he was to be the chief feducer and misleader of the heir apparent of the crown, it was incumbent on the poet to qualify him for that part in fuch a manner as should give probability and even a plea to the temptation; this was only to be done by the strongest touches and the highest colourings of a mafter; by hitting off a humour of fo happy, fo facetious and fo alluring a cast, as should tempt even royalty to forget itfelf, and virtue to turn reveller in his company. His lies, his vanity and his cowardice, too grofs to deceive, were to be so ingenious as to give delight; his cunning evafions, his witty resources, his mock folemnity, his vapouring felf-confequence, were to furnish a continual feast of laughter to his royal companion; he was not only to be witty himself, but the cause of wit in other people; a whetstone for raillery ; a buffoon, whofe very person was a jest: Com-pounded of these humours, Shakespear produced the character of Sir John Falstaff; a

character,

character, which neither ancient nor modern comedy has ever equalled, which was fo much the favourite of its author as to be introduced in three feveral plays, and which is likely to be the idol of the English stage, as long as it shall speak the language of Shakefpear.

This character almoft fingly fupports the whole comic plot of the first part of Henry the fourth; the poet has indeed thrown in fome auxiliary humours in the perfons of Gadfhill, Peto, Bardolph, and Hostess Quickly; the two firft ferve for little elfe except to fill up the action, but Bardolph as a butt to Falftaff's raillery, and the hoftefs in her wrangling fcene with him, when his pockets had been emptied as he was asleep in the tavern, give occasion to scenes of infinite pleafantry: Poins is contrasted from the reft of the gang, and as he is made the companion of the prince, is very properly represented as a man of better qualities and morals than Falstaff's more immediate hangers-on and dependants.

The humour of Falstaff opens into full difplay upon his very firft introduction with the prince; the incident of the robbery on

the highway, the scene in Eaftcheap in confequence of that ridiculous encounter, and the whole of his conduct during the action with Percy, are fo exquifitely pleasant, that upon the renovation of his dramatic life in the fecond part of Henry the fourth, I queftion if the humour does not in part evaporate by continuation; at least I am perfuaded that it flattens a little in the outfet, and though his wit may not flow less copioufly, yet it comes with more labour and is farther fetcht. The poet feems to have been fenfible how difficult it was to preferve the vein as rich as at firft, and has therefore ftrengthened his comic plot in the fecond. play with feveral new recruits, who may take a fhare with Falstaff, to whom he no longer entrufts the whole burthen of the humour. In the front of thefe auxiliaries ftands Pistol, a character fo new, whimsical and extravagant, that if it were not for a commentator now living, whofe very extraordinary researches, amongst our old authors, have fupplied us with paffages to illuminate the ftrange rhapfodies which Shakespear has put into his mouth, I fhould for one have thought Antient Piftol

as