At the first Entrance of the Knight, your good Humour and Tendency to Mirth are irresistibly excited by his jolly Appearance and Corpulency; you feel and acknowledge him, to be the fittest Subject imaginable for yielding Diversion and Merriment; but when you see him immediately set up for Enterprize and Activity, with his evident Weight and Unweildiness, your Attention is all call’d forth, and you are eager to watch him to the End of his Adventures; Your Imagination pointing out with a full Scope his future Embarrassments.  All the while as you accompany him forwards, he heightens your Relish for his future Disasters, by his happy Opinion of his own Sufficiency, and the gay Vaunts which he makes of his Talents and Accomplishments; so that at last when he falls into a Scrape, your Expectation is exquisitely gratify’d, and you have the full Pleasure of seeing all his trumpeted Honour laid in the Dust.  When in the midst of his Misfortunes, instead of being utterly demolish’d and sunk, he rises again by the superior Force of his Wit, and begins a new Course with fresh Spirit and Alacrity; This excites you the more to renew the Chace, in full View of his second Defeat; out of which he recovers again, and triumphs with new Pretensions and Boastings.  After this he immediately starts upon a third Race, and so on; continually detected and caught, and yet constantly extricating himself by his inimitable Wit and Invention; thus yielding a perpetual Round of Sport and Diversion.

Again, the genteel Quality of Sir John is of great Use in supporting his Character; It prevents his sinking too low after several of his Misfortunes; Besides, you allow him, in consequence of his Rank and Seniority, the Privilege to dictate, and take the Lead, and to rebuke others upon many Occasions; By this he is sav’d from appearing too nauseous and impudent.  The good Sense which he possesses comes also to his Aid, and saves him from being despicable, by forcing your Esteem for his real Abilities.—­Again, the Privilege you allow him of rebuking and checking others, when he assumes it with proper Firmness and Superiority, helps to settle anew, and compose his Character after an Embarrassment; And reduces in some measure the Spirit of the Company to a proper Level, before he sets out again upon a fresh Adventure;—­without this, they would be kept continually strain’d, and wound up to the highest Pitch, without sufficient Relief and Diversity.

It may also deserve to be remark’d of Falstaff, that the Figure of his Person is admirably suited to the Turn of his Mind; so that there arises before you a perpetual Allusion from one to the other, which forms an incessant Series of Wit, whether they are in Contrast or Agreement together.—­When he pretends to Activity, there is Wit in the Contrast between his Mind and his Person, —­And Wit in their Agreement, when he triumphs in Jollity.