Pickwick are recognized examples of characters
introduced in pure ridicule, and presently gaining
the affection, and finally the respect of their
authors. To them may be added Shakespear's
Falstaff. Falstaff is introduced as a subordinate
stage figure with no other function than to be
robbed by the Prince and Poins, who was origi-
nally meant to be the raisonneur of the piece, and
the chief figure among the prince's dissolute as-
sociates. But Poins soon fades into nothing, like
several characters in Dickens's early works;
whilst Falstaff develops into an enormous joke
and an exquisitely mimicked human type. Only



202 The Quintessence of Ibsenism

in the end the joke withers. The question comes
to Shakespear: Is this really a laughing matter? '
Of course there can be only one answer; and
Shakespear gives it as best he can by the mouth
of the prince become king, who might, one thinks,
have the decency to wait until he has redeemed
his own character before assuming the right to
lecture his boon companion. Falstaff, rebuked
and humiliated, dies miserably. His followers
are hanged, except Pistol, whose exclamation
^'Old do I wax; and from my weary limbs
honor is cudgelled" is a melancholy exordium
to an old age of beggary and imposture.
