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- 1 6 Merry Wives of Windsor
(natural
that
he
should
return to
a
somewhat
earlier
period
of
his
life,
especially
when
he
was
to
represent
him
as
a
lover.
Who,
indeed, does
not
assent
to
John-
son's remarks
on
Falstaff's
appearance
in
this
char-
acter ?
He
says
:
ā
' No task is harder than that of writing to the ideas
of another. Shakespeare knew what the queen seems
not to have known, that by any real passion of tender-
ness, the selfish craft, the careless jollity, and the lazy
i luxury of Falstaff must have suffered so much abate-
ment that little of his former cast could have remained.
Falstaff could not love but by ceasing to be Falstaff.
He could only counterfeit love. Thus the poet ap-
proached as near as he could to the work enjoined him ;
yet having, perhaps, in the former plays completed his
own ideas, he seems not to have been able to give
Falstaff all his former power of entertainment.'
Every one of Falstaff's acquaintances must feel his
amusement at Windsor dashed with constant vexation
at seeing the hero of the Boar's Head ' made an ass
of,' hunted and worried, and at last obliged to veil his
triumphant wit even to 'the Welch flannel.' But we
also feel that this same pleasant 'villainous misleader
of youth,' that 'grey iniquity' delighting to 'take his
ease in his own inn,' could not easily have been made
the sport and butt even of ladies as sprightly and mali-
cious as those of Windsor. It is quite clear that in the
days of Mrs. Hostess Quickly, he had rid himself of all
personal vanity that could lead him into any such self-
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