The Portland daily press., 1893-02-03

graphic accuracy, "a very corpulent BALD
headed man with little gray hair, and
aged from fifty to sixty. We are even
told that he was "two yards and little
more about the waist, and that it took
two and twenty yards of satin to make
his small clothes and slops. He was a
cultivated man, had travelled, was well
fitted to be q misleader of youth. He is
the most magnificent humorous charac-
ter ever constructed, with no end of wit
and drollery, and with such a vocabulary
as only Shakespeare could give. He is
always talking about himself; thinks
himself magnificent. From the begin
ming to the end of the play, with admira-
BILE humor. he keeps up the fiction that
it is the Prince who misleads him and not
he who c,rrupts the Prince.
AS to Falstaff's intellectual qualities,
Mr.. Clapp made the statement that from
the beginning to the end of the two
plays-with one possible exception where
Shakespeare nods-there is never word
allowed to escape his lips that makes an
addition to ones thought. Falstaffs
mind is like great inland sea, splendid
and dazzling in the sun, but only foot
deep.
AS to his other qualities, he is selfish
voluptuary, without conscience, fearing
neither God, man nor 9 devil. Self
glorifcation is his first passion.
Falstaff has afflicted our language
with the most dangerous maxim it con-
tains, one that has mis- ed and corrupted
men for centuries. The better part OF
valor is discretion The moment you
say that, you announce of valor some
thing that is not valor. This maxim has
made
Thousands of Men sneaks.
When it is ones part to be brave, it is
his duty to be brave, and not discreet
[Applause].
A man who is discreetly cowardly on
deliberation is the worst kind of cow
ard. Falstaff's cowardice is vile and in
defensible.
Some have told me that my view of
Falstaff is namby pamby; and have been
asked how I could ever enjoy such a
character as assume him to be.
Am not a true New Highlander? Can
I not Rsthetically enjoy what ethlcally
condemn? Laughter.
Now the Prince, whom we hold to be
morally clean, took the same view OF
FalstaG that we take of him,
The scene of the battle of Shrewsbury,
Wten J. diSLdtl ekulkou lilsS lOIlouo4y,o+onS
that it must have been impossible for the
Prince to have had real affection for him.
s'Poor Jack, farewell, could have bet
ter spared better man. the words OF
the Prince when he thought Falstaff dead,
do not betray great grief
As to the character of Hotspur, he was
grown-up child. pettish, careless, cap
tious, adored by his wife, but an indif-
ferent husband-yet splendid in abund.
ance of two great qualities, honor and
courage.
The impertinenee of Falstaff and the
singing s.repFoof which Henry V. adj
ministers on the return from his corona
ton, were the subjects of one of the most
interesting passages of the lecture.
The conflict of Hotspur and Prince
Harry in the closing scenes of the battle
of Shrewsbury, furnished a text for Mr..
Clapp's striking peroration in illus
ton of Shakspeare's high ideal of the
character of his eountrymen.
The Princes soliloquy on his fallen foe
was portraiture of the noble qualities
of that magnificent race of medieval
Englishmen from whom we are descend
ed.