stage direction) _the Prince and __POINS__ set upon them, they
all run away; and __FALSTAFF__ after a blow or two runs away too, leaving
the booty behind them._--"_Got with much ease,_" says the Prince, as an
event beyond expectation, "_Now merrily to horse._"--Poins adds, as they
are going off, "_How the rogue roared!_" This observation is afterwards
remembered by the Prince, who, urging the jest to _Falstaff_, says,
doubtless with all the licence of exaggeration,--"_And you, __FALSTAFF__,
carried your guts away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity, and roared for
mercy, and still ran and roared, as I ever heard bull-calf._" If he did
roar for mercy, it must have been a very inarticulate sort of roaring; for
there is not a single word set down for _Falstaff_ from which this roaring
may be inferred, or any stage direction to the actor for that purpose:
But, in the spirit of mirth and derision, the lightest exclamation might
be easily converted into the roar of a bull-calf.

We have now gone through this transaction considered simply on its own
circumstances, and without reference to any future boast or imputation. It
is upon these circumstances the case must be tried, and every colour
subsequently thrown upon it, either by wit or folly, ought to be
discharged. Take it, then, as it stands hitherto, with reference only to
its own preceding and concomitant circumstances, and to the unbounded
ability of _Shakespeare_ to obtain his own ends, and we must, I think, be
compelled to confess that this transaction was never intended by
_Shakespeare_ to detect and expose the false pretences of a real Coward;
but, on the contrary, to involve a man of allowed Courage, though in other
respects of a very peculiar character, in such circumstances and
suspicions of Cowardice as might, by the operation of those peculiarities,
produce afterwards much temporary mirth among his familiar and intimate
companions: Of this we cannot require a stronger proof than the great
attention which is paid to the decorum and truth of character in the stage
direction already quoted: It appears, from thence, that it was not thought
_decent_ that _Falstaff_ should run at all, until he had been deserted by
his companions, and had even afterwards exchanged blows with his
assailants;--and thus, a just distinction is kept up between the natural
Cowardice of the three associates and the accidental Terror of _Falstaff_.

Hitherto, then, I think it is very clear that