The sketch-book of Geoffrey Crayon, gent[pseud.] together with Abbotsford and other selections from the writings of Washington Irving .. . in what way I should discharge thisduty. I found myself anticipated in every attempt at a newreading; every doubtful line had been explained a dozendifferent ways, and perplexed beyond the reach of elucidation;and as to fine passages,they had all been amplypraised by previous admir-ers ; nay, so completely hadthe bard, of late, been over-larded with panegyric by agreat German critic, thatit was difficult now to findeven a fault that had notbeen argued into
The sketch-book of Geoffrey Crayon, gent[pseud.] together with Abbotsford and other selections from the writings of Washington Irving .. . in what way I should discharge thisduty. I found myself anticipated in every attempt at a newreading; every doubtful line had been explained a dozendifferent ways, and perplexed beyond the reach of elucidation;and as to fine passages,they had all been amplypraised by previous admir-ers ; nay, so completely hadthe bard, of late, been over-larded with panegyric by agreat German critic, thatit was difficult now to findeven a fault that had notbeen argued into a beauty. 4. In this perplexity, Iwas one morning turningover his pages, when I casu-ally opened upon the comicscenes of Henry IV, andwas, in a moment, com-pletely lost in the madcaprevelry of the Boars HeadTavern. So vividly andnaturally are these scenesof humor depicted, andwith such force and con-sistency are the characters sustained, that they becomemingled up in the mind with the facts and personages of reallife. To few readers does it occur, that these are all idealcreations of a poets brain, and that, in sober truth, no such. Yb Olde Boars Head TavernFrom Callows London Taverns 124 THE SKETCH-BOOK knot of merry roisters ever enlivened the dull neighborhoodof Eastcheap. 5. For my part I love to give myself up to the illusions ofpoetry. A hero of fiction that never existed is just as valuableto me as a hero of history that existed a thousand years since :and, if I may be excused such an insensibility to the commonties of human nature, I would not give up fat Jack for halfthe great men of ancient chronicle. What have the heroes ofyore done for me, or men like me? They have conqueredcountries of which I do not enjoy an acre; or they have gainedlaurels of which I do not inherit a leaf; or they have furnishedexamples of hair-brained prowess, which I have neither theopportunity nor the inclination to follow. But, old JackFalstaff! — kind Jack Falstaff ! — sweet Jack Falstaf
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