as his thirst, was congenital. Let those who are not born with his
comfortable figure sigh in vain to attain his stately proportions.
This is a thing which Nature gives us at our birth as much as the
Scandinavian thirst or the shaping spirit of imagination.

Born somewhere in Norfolk, Falstaff's early months and years were no
doubt rich with the promise of his after greatness. We have no record
of his infancy, and are tempted to supply the gap with Rabelais'
chapters on Gargantua's babyhood. But regard for the truth compels us
to add nothing that cannot fairly be deduced from the evidence. We
leave the strapping boy in his swaddling-clothes to answer the
question _when_ he was born. Now, it is to be regretted that
Falstaff, who was so precise about the hour of his birth, should not
have mentioned the year. On this point we are again left to inference
from conflicting statements. We have this distinct point to start
from, that Falstaff, in or about the year 1401, gives his age as some
fifty or by'r Lady inclining to three-score. It is true that in other
places he represents himself as old, and again in another states that
he and his accomplices in the Gadshill robbery are in the vaward of
their youth. The Chief Justice reproves him for this affectation of
youth, and puts a question (which, it is true, elicits no admission
from Falstaff) as to whether every part of him is not blasted with
antiquity.

We are inclined to think that Falstaff rather understated his age when
he described himself as by'r Lady inclining to three-score, and that
we shall not be far wrong if we set down 1340 as the year of his
birth. We cannot be certain to a year or two. There is a similar
uncertainty about the year of Sir Richard Whittington's birth. But
both these great men, whose careers afford in some respects striking