Rogue's gallery

With the creation of chronically thirsty characters like Sir John Falstaff, Sir Toby Belch, and Christopher Sly, Shakespeare undoubtedly knew he was tapping into one of comedy's undeniable truths: a mug of ale can lend itself to laughter.

Peering through the fog of inebriation only seemed to sharpen the wit of Sir John in Henry IV, Part 1 and Sir Toby in Twelfth Night. The same can hardly be said for Sly, a tinker who passes out drunk in the Induction of The Taming of the Shrew. He awakens, only to be tricked into believing that he is a wealthy gentleman of the leisured class, encouraged to enjoy a play.

All three characters provide can't-miss material for book illustrators and engravers; during the last decades of the nineteenth century in particular, a great deal of ink was spilled in their image.

The upper illustration features Sly in a stupor, scolded by a hostess whose tolerance is clearly being put to the test. In the case of both characters, posture says it all: the days of stiff 18th-century formality in illustration are long past. In the second scene, Falstaff, whose fondness for food and drink is matched only by his carefully considered cowardice, plays dead under a shield on the battlefield at Shrewsbury. Honor? Falstaff will have none of it. Not the typical battlefield scene, by a long shot.

The engraving at bottom displays a rare moment of feigned martial effrontery on the part of Sir Toby Belch, who has to be restrained by Olivia before he and the disguised Viola go at it with swords. Sir Toby's girth, inflated by years of overindulgence, makes him instantly recognizable as the comic centerpiece of Twelfth Night. He can be overshadowed only by Falstaff in Shakespeare's comic pantheon.