comedy by an unknown author, written on a really living person, Sir John
Oldcastle, who had been the friend of some duke. This Oldcastle had once
been convicted of heresy, but had been saved by his friend the duke. But
afterward he was condemned and burned at the stake for his religious
beliefs, which did not conform with Catholicism. It was on this same
Oldcastle that an anonymous author, in order to please the Catholic
public, wrote a comedy or drama, ridiculing this martyr for his faith
and representing him as a good-for-nothing man, the boon companion of
the duke, and it is from this comedy that Shakespeare borrowed, not
only the character of Falstaff, but also his own ironical attitude
toward it. In Shakespeare's first works, when this character appeared,
it was frankly called "Oldcastle," but later, in Elizabeth's time, when
Protestantism again triumphed, it was awkward to bring out with mockery
a martyr in the strife with Catholicism, and, besides, Oldcastle's
relatives had protested, and Shakespeare accordingly altered the name of
Oldcastle to that of Falstaff, also a historical figure, known for
having fled from the field of battle at Agincourt.

Falstaff is, indeed, quite a natural and typical character; but then it
is perhaps the only natural and typical character depicted by
Shakespeare. And this character is natural and typical because, of all
Shakespeare's characters, it alone speaks a language proper to itself.
And it speaks thus because it speaks in that same Shakespearian
language, full of mirthless jokes and unamusing puns which, being
unnatural to all Shakespeare's other characters, is quite in harmony
with the boastful, distorted, and depraved character of the drunken
Falstaff. For this reason alone does this figure truly represent a
definite character. Unfortunately, the artistic effect of this character
is spoilt by the fact that it is so repulsive by its gluttony,
drunkenness, debauchery, rascality, deceit, and cowardice, that it is
difficult to share the feeling of gay humor with which the author treats
it. Thus it is with Falstaff.

But in none of Shakespeare's figures is his, I will not say incapacity
to give, but utter indifference to giving, his personages a typical
character so strikingly manifest as in Hamlet; and in connection with
none of Shakespeare's works do we see so strikingly displayed that blind
worship of Shakespeare, that unreasoning state of hypnotism owing to
which the mere t