{"id":"01KG8B167E98AM8VGC5HHRPNDN","cid":"bafkreie6ycc5lwk56fekvkmojaq3wxxeuljqestmrqbp6mtfcjkhrkhwvq","type":"file","properties":{"cid":"bafkreiea6h5c3ohc6oujxxi3ewmiszxnf7kffmg6norxh75tsqygrdfgdy","content_type":"image/jpeg","filename":"03_merry_wives_of_windsor_1905_page_0215.jpg","height":1778,"key":"pdf-page-1769806534356-bafcab1bajk","label":"03_merry_wives_of_windsor_1905_page_0215.jpg","page_number":215,"pdf_type":"born_digital","size":339445,"text":"APPENDIX\nComments on Some of the Characters\nCharles Cowden-Clarke (whose Shakespeare Characters, pub-\nlished in 1863, is out of print and not to be found in many of the\nlibraries), after referring (see p. 19 above) to the \" purely English \"\ncharacter of the play, remarks : —\n\"The dramatis persona, too, perfectly harmonize, and are in\nstrict keeping with the scene. They are redolent of health and\ngood-humour — that moral and physical sunshine.\n\" There are the two * Merry Wives ' themselves. \"What a picture\nwe have of buxom, laughing, ripe beauty ! ready for any frolic\n'that may not sully the chariness of their honesty.' . . . Then,\nthere is Page, the very personification of hearty English hospitality.\nYou feel the tight grasp of his hand, and see the honest sparkle of\nhis eye, as he leads in the wranglers with, * Come, gentlemen, I\nhope we shall drink down all unkindness.* If I were required to\npoint to the portrait of a genuine, indigenous Englishman, through-\nout the whole of the works of Shakespeare, Page would be the\nman. Every thought of his heart, every motion of his body, appears\nto be the result of pure instinct ; he has nothing exotic or artificial\nabout him. He possesses strong yeoman sense, an unmistakable\nspeech, a trusting nature, and a fearless deportment ; and these are\nthe characteristics of a true Englishman. He is to be gulled — no\nman more so ; and he is gulled every day in the year — no proof,\nyou will say, of his * strong yeoman sense ; ' but an Englishman is\nquite as frequently gulled with his eyes open as when they are hood-\nwinked. He has a conceit in being indifferent to chicanery. He\nconfides in his own strength when it behooves hira to exert it ; and\nthen he abates the nuisance. . . .\nMERRY WIVES — I4 2O9","text_extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:55:34.356Z","text_extracted_by":"pdf-processor","text_has_content":true,"text_source":"born_digital","uploaded":true,"width":1084},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG89K4N3KNPAGDJAVRPVWBA4","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KG89JREDR8WY5QQGYR5FZRDY","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:55:34.894Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:55:37.110Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFFH6ETXGRVD10WPNP3007D6"}}