Part one of term paper
Henry IV, Part One, has always been one of the most popular of Shakespeare's plays, maybe because of Falstaff. Much of the early criticism I found concentrated on Falstaff and so will I. This may begin in the eighteenth century with Samuel Johnson. For Johnson, the Prince is a "young man of great abilities and violent passions," and Hotspur ...

Part two of term paper
... and insult the defenceless . . . his wit is not of the splendid or ambitious kind, but consists in easy escapes and sallies of levity [yet] he is stained with no enormous or sanguinary crimes, so that his licentiousness is not so offensive but that it may be borne for his mirth." Johnson makes three assumptions in his reading of the play: 1. That Falstaff is the kind of character who invites a moral judgment mainly that he can answer to the charge of being a coward. 2. That you ...