Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

No man is more dangerous than he that with a will to corrupt hath the power to please. (Samuel Johnson) If Falstaff were running the world, it would be like the Balkans. (W. H. Auden) We all like Old Jack. (Maurice Morgann) If ever a subject was in need of a breath of fresh air, it is the study of Falstaff, Shakespeare's most renowned comic character. A figure of monumental excess, Falstaff invites hyperbole. For example, he is said to be: fat-witted a fat-kidneyed rascal a fat-guts a fat rogue a fat paunch a fat deer a fat villain a fat fool a fat man a gross fat man an old fat man the old boar the town bull woolsack a foul-mouthed man sweet beef Jack Sack-and-Sugar Jack lean Jack blown Jack poor Jack chops no starveling a gummed velvet Sir John Paunch a rascal an oily rascal a whoreson impudent embossed rascal a whoreson obscene greasy tallow-keech a whoreson round man a villain claybrained guts a bed-presser a horse-breaker a huge hill of flesh a devil a trunk of humors a bolting hatch of beastliness a stuffed cloak-bag of guts an old white-bearded Satan a villainous abominable misleader of youth a natural coward And that is just what his friends call him. His critics have been much kinder: to them he is “unimitable” ( Johnson 1973 : 204); “a man of birth and fashion, bred up in all the learning and accomplishments of the times; – of ability and Courage equal to any situation” ... log in or subscribe to read full text