“Le seul bruit de mon nom renverse les murailles, Defait les escadrons, et gagne les batailles; D’un seul commandement que je fais aux trois Parques, Je depeuple l’état des plus heureux monarques.” Corneille’s Matamore also resembles the Miles Gloriosus, in his self-complacency on the subject of personal beauty, and his belief that every woman is in love with him. Pyrgopolinices declares— “Miserum esse pulchrum hominem nimis.” And in like manner, Matamore— “Ciel qui sais comme quoi j’en suis persecuté. Un peu plus de repos avec moins de beaute. Fais qu’un si long mepris enfin la desabuse.” Scarron, who was nearly contemporary with Corneille, painted this character in Don Gaspard de Padille, the _Fanfaron_, as he is called, of the comedy _Jodelet Duelliste_. Gaspard, however, is not a very important or prominent character of the piece. Jodelet himself, the valet of Don Felix, seems intended as a burlesque or caricature of all the braggarts who had preceded him. Having received a blow, he is ever vowing vengeance against the author of the injury in his absence, but on his appearance, suddenly becomes tame and submissive. The braggart captains of the old English theatre have much greater merit than the utterers of these nonsensical rhapsodies of the French stage. Falstaff has been often considered as a combination of the characters of the parasite and Miles Gloriosus; but he has infinitely more wit than either; and the liberty of fiction in which he indulges, is perhaps scarcely more than is necessary for its display. His cheerfulness and humour are of the most characteristic and captivating sort, and instead of suffering that contumely with which the parasite and Miles Gloriosus are loaded, laughter and approbation attend his greatest excesses. His boasting speeches are chiefly humorous; jest and merriment account for most of them, and palliate them all. It is only subsequent to the robbery that he discovers the traits of a Miles Gloriosus. Most of the ancient braggarts bluster and boast of distant wars, beyond the reach of knowledge or evidence—of exploits performed in Persia and Armenia—of storms and stratagems—of falling pell-mell on a whole army, and putting thousands to the sword, till, by some open and apparent fact, they are brought to shame as cowards and liars; but Falstaff’s boasts refer to recent occurrences, and he always preserves himself from degradation by the address with which he defies detection, and extricates himself from every difficulty. His character, however, in the _Merry Wives of Windsor_, has some affinity to the captains of the Roman stage, from his being constantly played on in consequence of his persuasion that women are in love with him. The swaggering Pistol in _King Henry IV._, is chiefly characterized by his inflated language, and is, as Doll calls him, merely “a fustian rascal.” Bessus, in Beaumont and Fletcher’s _King and No King_, is said by Theobald