ABSTRACT
First published Edinburgh Saturday Post, 22 September 1827, p. 156. Never reprinted. The witty and very apt conceit about Falstaff in the last paragraph is highly suggestive of De Quincey, especially in the context of Edinburgh’s Post. Similar glances at Shakespeare (especially his English history plays), occur often in De Quincey’s work for the Post at this time. Other points common to De Quincey’s articles, but not to those of the other contributors, include the use of a proverb, the sentence-fragment ‘But to what purpose?’, the language of pleasure (in phrases like ‘we should be glad’ and ‘We heartily wish’), and the word ‘that’ in italics. This leading article is stylish and well-written, and it ridicules some of the city’s investors with irony, sarcasm, and literary allusion, rather than with morality or religion. As the editor at this time, De Quincey wrote many (quite possibly most) of the weekly leaders for the Post, during the short time between the arrival of the mail from London, at six o’clock on Saturday evening, and the time when the paper was sent to press, around seven o’clock (see ‘Climbing the Post’).
