FALSTAFF

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 79, 3 April 1926, Page 21

FALSTAFF

"The Falstaff Plays of William Shakespeare." By Thomas ,Donovan* Sydney: Angus and Robertson. "The Merry Wives of Windsor," "King Henry 1V.," parts I. and 11., and "King Henry V.," have been taken by Mr. Donovan as presenting a full-length portrait of Sir John Falstaff. "The Merry Wives of Windsor" is abridged by omission of certain passages which Mr. Donovan thought \ inessential to his purpose. The two parts of "Henry IV." have also been shortened, and "Henry V." is restored, to the form, as the author believes, it was left by Shakespeare. The arrangement is of great interest to students, and for the general reader it is a most convenient form of studying the man Palstaff. Mr. Donovan shows that as the "fat Knight," with his compaions was banished from London when Prince Hal became King Henry and forbidden to come nearer than ten miles of the city, he died at Staines, by the side of the Thames, and not in the tavern in Eastckeap. This is a handy volume for every Shakespearean reader to have by him; the type is reasonable in'size, tho margins of the pages are liberal, and good reproductions of old woodcuts and engravings are usod in illustration.