Falstaff

Definition:
A fat, vain, boastful, and cowardly fun-maker, whose excessive consumption of alcohol is well known.

Определение:
Веселый толстяк, любитель выпивки и бахвальства.

Origin:
//Sir John Falstaff// is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare. In the two //Henry IV// plays, he is a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V. A fat, vain, boastful, and cowardly knight, //Falstaff// leads the apparently wayward Prince Hal into trouble, and is ultimately repudiated after Hal becomes king. //Falstaff// also appears in //The Merry Wives of Windsor//. Though primarily a comic figure, //Falstaff// still embodies a kind of depth common to Shakespeare's tricky comedy. //Falstaff// is a central element in the two parts of //Henry IV//, a natural portion of their structure. Yet he does at times seem to be mainly a fun-maker, a character whom we both laugh with and laugh at, and almost in the same breath. Nothing has helped more to give this impression than the fat knight’s account of the double robbery at Gadshill. Even his name invites humor, as it is a sort of pun on impotence, brought on by the character's excessive consumption of alcohol.

Происхождение:
//Сэр Джон Фальстаф// (англ. //Sir John Falstaff//) — комический персонаж ряда произведений Шекспира : «Виндзорские насмешницы», «Генрих IV, часть 1» и «Генрих IV, часть 2». //Фальстаф// — толстый, добродушный, трусливый пьяница, проводящий общество в компании гуляк (Бардольф, Ним, Пистоль) и девиц. //Фальстаф// — рыцарь, он хвастается своими мнимыми воинскими подвигами, но война и рыцарская честь ему не нужны, так как от них нет никакой материальной пользы (знаменитый монолог-«катехизис» «Может ли честь излечить ногу?»).

Примеры:
Tom Merry, Bob Cherry, Billy Bunter and all their peers bid fair to join the immortals, only a little lower than //Falstaff//, Gulliver and Long John Silver. (BNC)

He has been at court, he is an educated man. He may have the smell of the countryside about him but he knows how to behave. RO Like //Falstaff//? HvK Like //Falstaff//. He has his little failings, his women, and so on. In the Third Act he realizes that the world is against him but he is intelligent enough to know that he is the victim of his own weaknesses. (BNC)

Дериваты:
//Falstaffian -// relating to or resembling Shakespeare's character //Sir John Falstaff// in being fat, jolly, and debauched.

Примеры:
a //Falstaffian// gusto for life.(ODO).