Falstaff or Bobadil—are good examples. But perhaps the most delightful is the light-hearted caroller Merrythought in The Knight of the Burning Pestle. Scott was fond of quoting in his Journals one of his snatches of song:—
"I would not be a serving-man
To carry the cloak bag still;
Nor would I be a falconer,
The greedy hawks to fill:
But I would be in a good house,
And have a good master too;
But I would eat and drink of the best,
And no work would I do."
That he was to some extent the original of Scott's own David Gellatly is, I think, certain. In general, however, it is not the individual characters which are the principal source of interest and amusement in their comedies, but the easily unfolded story, the sparkling careless dialogue with its air of good-breeding, and the distinctness and charm—in spite of serious blots—with which they portrayed the young men and women of their age. Their gaiety is not more hearty or infectious than Middleton's. In fact, the situations and scenes in the comedies of the latter are often more essentially humorous, but Middleton's is almost always a comedy of citizen life and character. Beaumont and Fletcher's, with a gleam of the poetry which illumines Shakespeare's, have also the air of polite society which pervades the later comedy from Etheredge to Congreve. The Wild-Goose Chase, Rule a Wife and have a Wife, The Little French Lawyer,
