perfection, or even saintliness, for Falstaff. But we may say of him,
as Byron says of Venice, that his very vices are of the gentler sort.
And as for this charge of selfishness and want of conscience, we think
that the words of Bardolph on his master's death are an overwhelming
answer to it. Bardolph said, on hearing the news: 'I would I were with
him wheresoever he is: whether he be in heaven or hell.' Bardolph was
a mere serving-man, not of the highest sensibility, and he for thirty
years knew his master as his valet knows the hero. Surely the man who
could draw such an expression of feeling from his rough servant is not
the man to be lightly charged with selfishness! Which of us can hope
for such an epitaph, not from a hireling, but from our nearest and
dearest? Does Dr. Gervinus know anyone who will make such a reply to a
posthumous charge against him of dulness and lack of humour?