Chanced upon an excellent article about the role of Falstaff by my favourite drama critic, Michael Billington, today. He nails it on the complexity of the character with some fascinating summaries of recent stage performances. Must say though, I don't think the comparison with the complexity of Hamlet as a character works. They seem to me to belong to different orders of creation: Hamlet as the starring role, a demonstration of Burbage's astonishing range; Falstaff as a real bloke that Shakespeare may even have encountered. (Come to think of it, I'm not sure who played the fat knight. Was it Will Kemp?)
As so often is the case with genuinely classy articles, the comments section is worth reading. Someone makes the brilliant point that Boris Johnson bears an uncanny likeness to the old villain. Spot on, and I never thought of it before. Mind you, Falstaff is a big character for all his many faults; Johnson not so. Small in fact. Petty in a way that Falstaff can't be.
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