ly so much loftily principled characterization before it begins to distance itself from the goings-on, so Falstaff serves the purpose of humanizing the play, giving the flawed human beings in the audience a fully down-to-earth character with whom to happily identify.
As we read in the introduction to 1 Henry IV in the Norton Anthology of English Literature, Falstaff, "whose 'humorous conceits' are advertised on the title page, is one of the greatest comic creations in all literature. . . . The ominous wars of Carlisle's prophecy could thus be mixed with hilarious fooling" (Shakespeare 888). Again, then, we see that Falstaff played the important role of breaking the weighty tensions creat
...