Page:An Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff (1777).djvu/33

Rh The scene of the robbery, and the disgraces attending it, which stand first in the Play, and introduce us to the knowledge of Falstaff, I shall beg leave (as I think this scene to have been the source of much unreasonbleunreasonable [sic] prejudice) to reserve till we are more fully acquainted with the whole character of Falstaff; and I shall therefore hope that the reader will not for a time advert to it; or to the jests of the Prince or of Poins in consequence of that unlucky adventure.

In drawing out the parts of Falstaff’s character, with which I shall begin this Inquiry; I shall take the liberty of putting Constitutional bravery into his composition; but the reader will be pleased to consider what I shall say in that respect as spoken hypothetically for the present, to be retained, or discharged out of it, as he shall finally determine.

To me then it appears that the leading quality in Falstaff’s character, and that from which all the rest take their colour, is a high degree of wit