ABSTRACT
Richard Cumberland addresses his remarks to 'the Character of Falstaff', agreeing that in this remarkable creation William Shakespeare shows himself of all poets 'to have possessed a fancy the most prolific, an imagination the most luxuriantly fertile'. Shakespeare produced the character of Sir John Falstaff, a character which neither ancient nor modern comedy has ever equaled, which is likely to be the idol of the English stage as long as it shall speak the language of Shakespeare. The Falstaff's humor opens into full display upon his very first introduction with the Prince of Wales. This prince, whose character was destined to exhibit a revolution of so brilliant a sort, was not only in himself a very tempting hero for the dramatic poet, who delights in incidents of novelty and surprise, but also offered to his inspiration a train of attendant characters, in the persons of his wild comrades and associates, which would be of themselves a drama.
