[4] That from the beginning Shakespeare intended Henry’s accession to be Falstaff’s catastrophe is clear from the fact that, when the two characters first appear, Falstaff is made to betray at once the hopes with which he looks forward to Henry’s reign. See the First Part of Henry IV., Act I., Scene ii.
[5] Cf. Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespear’s Plays.
[6] See Note at end of lecture.
[7] It is to be regretted, however, that in carrying his guts away so nimbly he ‘roared for mercy’; for I fear we have no ground for rejecting Henry’s statement to that effect, and I do not see my way to adopt the suggestion (I forget whose it is) that Falstaff spoke the truth when he swore that he knew Henry and Poins as well as he that made them.
[8] Panurge too was ‘naturally subject to a kind of disease which at that time they called lack of money’; it was a ‘flux in his purse’ (Rabelais, Book II., chapters xvi., xvii.).
[9] I seem to remember that, according to Gervinus, Shakespeare did disgrace Sir Toby—by marrying him to Maria!
SHAKESPEARE’S ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA