not adequately satisfy most critics because Falstaff appears in three separate plays as three distinct characters and, thus, three distinct comic types.
Frye refers to the four basic types of comic characters as alazon, eiron, buffoon, and agroikos:
- The Impostor (alazon): This is a character "who pretends or tries to be something more than he is." Frye notes that one of the most common types is the miles gloriosus (39). Frye also connects this type to the "heavy father … with his rages and threats, his obsessions and gullibility" and; as a miles gloriosus, "he is a man of words rather than deeds" (172).
- The Self-Deprecator (eiron): This character "deprecates himself" and "makes himself invulnerable." Further, "he is a predestined artist, just as the alazon is one of his predestined victims." Frye also suggests that such a character may provide an ironic function (40). Frye adds that this character may include the "scheming valet" type; and, during the Renaissance, was a "trickster … developed from the vice or iniquity of the morality plays. … The vice, to give him that name, … acts from pure love of mischief and can set a comic action going with a minimum of motivation." Frye suggests that both Puck and Don John (in Much Ado) are of this type but that the actions of this character are most often "benevolent" (173).
