Yet this scene is so excellent and natural, that
the uncertainty in the painting of Falstaff strikes me as peculiar. But
this first speech is not the only speech of Falstaff in which
Shakespeare betrays himself; again and again we catch the very accent of
the poet. It is not Falstaff but Shakespeare who says that "the poor
abuses of the time want countenance"; and later in the play, when the
character of Falstaff is fully developed, it is Shakespeare, the
thinker, who calls Falstaff's ragged regiment "the cankers of a calm
world and a long peace." In just the same way Hamlet speaks of the
expedition of Fortinbras:
"This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace,
That inward breaks."
But though the belief that Shakespeare sometimes falls out of the
character and slips phrases of his own into Falstaff's mouth is
well-founded, it should nevertheless be put aside as a heresy, for the
true faith is that the white-bearded old footpad who cheered on his
fellow-ruffians with
"Strike.... Bacon-fed knaves! they hate us youth:
down with them! fleece them!"
and again:
"On, bacons, on! What, ye knaves! young men
must live!"
is the most splendid piece of humorous portraiture in the world's
fiction.
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