Characters of Shakespear's Plays Merry Wives of Windsor". The bulk of Hazlitt's commentary on the two history plays is devoted to Falstaff, whom he considers to be "perhaps the most substantial comic character ever invented". Falstaff had been of interest to Shakespearean commentators for years. Forty years earlier, a full-length book had appeared, "An Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff" (1777), by Maurice Morgann, often taken as the beginning of that school of Shakespearean criticism which considers the characters of Shakespeare's plays as though they were real people. Hazlitt, who seems to have had little acquaintance with Morgann's work, is careful
Gustavo III (Verdi) be Colonial Boston. This setting became the "standard" one until the mid-20th Century. Most productions today locate the action in Sweden. However, a "hypothetical reconstruction" of "Gustavo III" under its original name was performed by the Gothenburg Opera in Sweden during the 2002/03 season. In early 1856 Vincenzo Torelli, secretary to the Teatro San Carlo's management approached Verdi with a contract offer, the proposed opera being "Re Lear", an opera based on Shakespeare's "King Lear". It was known to be a subject dear to the composer, but this libretto, for which Somma and Verdi had worked for some time, raised