Lord help me, but despite thinking it's constructed on faulty logic ("I like this character; I do not like cowards; he must not be a coward") and it addresses an issue I don't even care about (viz "was Falstaff a coward"), I can't help but be charmed by this essay. By its tone, by its passionate, foolish love for Falstaff and for Shakespeare, and by the sensible points that it does make.

It probably helped Morgann that the obnoxious, unknown previous owner of my text at one point wrote "ugh...he's just like those Lord of the Rings freakes...Star Trek...Star Wars...etc." in the margins and ensured that I had to be on Morgann's side. (I assume the "etc." referred to everything else I love.) ( )

Morice Morgann, Esq., author of the very ingenious Essay on the Character of Falstaff, had once an opportunity of entertaining Johnson for a day or two at Wycombe[…] Johnson being asked his opinion of this Essay, answered : " Why, Sir, we shall have the man come forth again ; and as he has proved Falstaff to be no coward, he may prove Iago to be a very good character."
--Boswell, in Life of Johnson