Travesty on Real Falstaff

1915

Yarmouth has a claim upon all Englishmen quite independently of its associations with the breakfast bloater, remarks a writer in St Nicholas. For it was the home of Shakespeare's Falstaff, who appears to have been a man of exemplary piety. The Falstaffs were an old Yarmouth family.

"A Falstolfe or Falstaff," writes John Richard Green, "was bailiff of Yarmouth in 1281. Another is among the first of its representatives in parliament, and from that the members of that family filled the highest municipal offices. John Falstolfe, a man of considerable account in the town, purchased lands at the close of the fourteenth century in Caistor, and became the father of Sir John Falstolfe, who, after a distinguished military career, was luckless enough to give his name to Shakespeare's famous character. In Yarmouth, however, he was better known as a benefactor to the great church of St. Nicholas.


Failures as Stepping Stones

John Wanamaker, in a recent address in Philadelphia, urged his audience to persevere.

"Every successful man," he said, "has probably had more failures, far more failures, than the nonentity has had.

"Success, after all, is nothing more than failure with a new coat of paint."