Notes from The Plays of William Shakespeare (1765)

This chapter presents the notes from the Plays of William Shakespeare (1765). This play is about the death of Henry the Fourth, and Shakespeare seems to have designed the whole series of action, from the beginning of Richard the Second to the end of Henry the Fifth. None of Shakespeare's plays are more read than the First and Second Parts of Henry the Fourth. Sir John Falstaff is familiar with the Prince only as an agent of vice, but of this familiarity he is so proud as not only to be supercilious and haughty with common men, but to think his interest of importance to the Duke of Lancaster. The moral to be drawn from this representation is that no man is more dangerous than he that, with a will to corrupt, hath the power to please; and that neither wit nor honesty ought to think themselves safe with such a companion when they see Henry seduced by Falstaff.