Falstaff's Role in Henry IV, Part One
Henry IV, Part One, has always been one of the most popular of Shakespeare's plays, maybe because of Falstaff. Much of the early criticism I found concentrated on Falstaff and so
will I. This may begin in the eighteenth century with Samuel Johnson. For Johnson, the Prince is a 'young man of great abilities and violent passions,' and Hotspur is a 'rugged soldier,' but 'Falstaff, unimitated, unimitable Falstaff, how shall I describe thee? Thou compound of sense and vice . . . a character loaded with faults, and with faults which produce contempt . . .…
