Yet Shakspere will not contradict history, even in its silence.
What is he to do? He will account for history _not knowing_ the
fact.--Falstaff claiming the honour, the Prince says to him:
"For my part, if a lie may do thee grace,
I'll gild it with the happiest terms I have;"
revealing thus the magnificence of his own character, in his readiness,
for the sake of his friend, to part with his chief renown. But the
Historic Muse could not believe that fat Jack Falstaff had killed
Hotspur, and therefore she would not record the claim.
In the second part of the same play, act i. scene 2, we find Falstaff
toweringly indignant with Mr. Dombledon, the silk mercer, that he will
stand upon security with a gentleman for a short cloak and slops of
satin. In the first scene of the second act, the hostess mentions that
Sir John is going to dine with Master Smooth, the silkman. Foiled with
Mr. Dombledon, he has already made himself so agreeable to Master
Smooth, that he is "indited to dinner" with him. This is, by the bye, as
to the action of the play; but as to the character of Sir John, is it
not
"Conceit deceitful, so compact, so kind"--_kinned--natural_?
The _conceit deceitful_ in the painting, is the imagination that means
more than its says.
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