alls it, _nine score and odd
miles_, with wonderful expedition, to join the army of Prince _John_ of
_Lancaster_; and declaring, after the surrender of _Coleville_, that "_had
he but a belly of any indifferency, he were simply the most active fellow
in Europe_." Nor ought we here to pass over his Knighthood without notice.
It was, I grant, intended by the author as a dignity which, like his
Courage and his wit, was to be debased; his knighthood by low situations,
his Courage by circumstances and imputations of cowardice, and his wit by
buffoonery. But how are we to suppose this honour was acquired? By that
very Courage, it should seem, which we so obstinately deny him. It was not
certainly given him, like a modern City Knighthood, for his wealth or
gravity: It was in these days a Military honour, and an authentic badge of
Military merit.

But _Falstaff_ was not only a Military Knight, he possess'd an honourable
_pension_ into the bargain; the reward as well as retainer of service, and
which seems (besides the favours perhaps of Mrs. _Ursula_) to be the
principal and only solid support of his present expences. But let us refer
to the passage. "_A pox of this gout, or a gout of this pox; for one or
the other plays the rogue with my great toe: It is no matter if I do halt,
I have the wars for my colour, and my pension shall seem the more
reasonable._" The mention _Falstaff_ here makes of a pension, has I
believe been generally construed to refer rather to _hope_ than
_possession_, yet I know not why: For the possessive MY, _my pension_,
(not _a_ pension) requires a different construction. Is it that we cannot
enjoy a wit till we have stript him of every worldly advantage, and
reduced him below the level of our envy? It may be perhaps for this reason
among others that _Shakespeare_ has so obscured the better parts of
_Falstaff_ and stolen them secretly out of our feelings, instead of
opening them fairly to the notice of our understandings. How carelessly,
and thro' what bye-paths, as it were, of casual inference, is this fact of
a pension introduced! And how has he associated it with misfortune and
infirmity! Yet I question, however, if, in this one place, the
_Impression_ which was intended be well and effectually made. It must be
left to the reader to determine if, in that mass of things out of which
_Falstaff_ is compounded, he ever considered a pension as any part of the
composition: A pension however he appears to have