From Harold Bloom, one of the greatest Shakespeare scholars of our time comes "a timely reminder of the power and possibility of words [and] the last love letter to the shaping spirit of Bloom's imagination" (front page,The New York Times Book Review) and an intimate, wise, deeply compelling portrait of Falstaff—Shakespeare's greatest enduring and complex comedic characters.Falstaff is both a comic and tragic central protagonist in Shakespeare's three Henry plays:Henry IV, Parts One and Two, andHenry V. He is companion to Prince Hal (the future Henry V), who loves him, goads, him, teases him, indulges his vast appetites, and commits all sorts of mischief with him—some innocent, some cruel. Falstaff can be lewd, funny, careless of others, a bad creditor, an unreliable friend, and in the end, devastatingly reckless in his presumption of loyalty from the new King.Award-winning author and esteemed professor Harold Bloom writes about...