It will be needless to shew, which might be done from a variety of particulars, that _Falstaff_ was known and had consideration at Court. _Shallow_ cultivates him in the idea that _a friend at Court is better than a penny in purse_: _Westmorland_ speaks to him in the tone of an equal: Upon _Falstaff_’s telling him that he thought his lordship had been already at Shrewsbury, _Westmorland_ replies,—“_Faith Sir John, ’tis more than time that I were there, and you too; the King I can tell you looks for us all; we must away all to night._”—“_Tut,_” says Falstaff, “_never fear me, I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream._”—He desires, in another place, of my lord John of Lancaster, “_that when he goes to Court, he may stand in his good report._” His intercourse and correspondence with both these lords seem easy and familiar. “_Go,_” says he to the page, “_bear this to my Lord of Lancaster, this to the Prince, this to the Earl of Westmorland, and this_ (for he extended himself on all sides) _to old Mrs. Ursula_,” whom, it seems, the rogue ought to have married many years before.—But these intimations are needless: We see him ourselves in the _Royal Presence_; where, certainly, his buffooneries never brought him; never was the Prince of a character to commit so high an indecorum, as to thrust, upon a solemn occasion, a mere Tavern companion into his father’s Presence, especially in a moment when he himself deserts his looser character, and takes up that of _a Prince indeed_.—In a very important scene, where _Worcester_ is expected with proposals from _Percy_, and wherein he is received, is treated with, and carries back offers of accommodation from the King, the King’s attendants upon the occasion are _the Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster, the Earl of Westmorland, Sir Walter Blunt, and Sir John Falstaff_.—What shall be said to this? _Falstaff_ is not surely introduced here in vicious indulgence to a mob audience;—he utters but one word, a buffoon one indeed, but aside, and to the Prince only. Nothing, it should seem, is wanting, if decorum would here have permitted, but that he should have spoken one sober sentence in the Presence (which yet we are to suppose him ready and able to do if occasion should have required; or his wit was given him to little purpose) and Sir _John Falstaff_ might be allowed to pass for an established Courtier and counsellor of state. “_If I do grow great,_” says he, “_I’ll grow less, purge and leave sack, and live as a nobleman should do._” Nobility did not then appear to him at an unmeasurable distance; it was, it seems, in his idea, the very next link in the chain. But to return. I would now demand what could bring _Falstaff_ into the Royal Presence upon such an occasion, or justify the Prince’s so public acknowledgment of him, but an established fame and reputation of Military merit? In short, just the like merit as brought Sir _Walter Blunt_ into the same circumstances of honour.