Falstaff

So appealing is Falstaff's irreverence to audiences that traits which would be despicable in others are seen as delightful in him. For example, in Giorgio Melchiorils "Dying of a Sweat: Falstaff and Oldcastle," we read scholarly work a6ou-e the phrase "dying of a sweat" as it is applied to Falstaff. There is much speculation about the phrase with respect to possible diseases that Falstaff might have had which would lead to such a condition (the plague? venereal disease from his carousing?), but the most simple and relevant one has to do with his cowardice:

Very few have heeded (one critic's] shrewd question: 'But isn't this the man who "sweats to death, And lards the lean earth as he walks along"? The Epilogue is merely promising that Falstaff will exhibit further evidence of his cowardice in the French campaign, to the audience's delight (Melchiori 211).

The author goes on to speculate on a connection between A

Falstaff and Oldcastle, the name of the character which Shakespeare used before "Falstaff," but the important poin

. . .
gorical personification of extreme self-indulgence or of a particular sin-" There is debate over the degree of Falstaff's cowardice, and the extent to which he expects his deceptions to be taken at face value, "but everyone agrees about his inexhaustible vitality and resilience It is not surprising that he, like other immortal characters in literature, remains something of a mystery" (Shakespeare 889). His relationship with Prince Hal reveals the fondness which the prince holds for Falstaff, but the Prince is in no way fooled by Falstaff's character. Falstaff's playfulness and irreverence kre at once established by Shakespeare when the playwright has Sir John ask the "time of day" and refer to the King-to-be as "lad." The response of the Prince to Falstaff's first words reveals the character of Falstaff as viewed from one who knows him best: Thou art so fat-witted with drinking of old sack, and unbuttoning thee after supper, and sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the day? Unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the signs of leaping-houses, and the b
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Approximate Word count = 1438
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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