I have made some comments below about Professor Bloom and his favorite Shakespearean character, Falstaff.
Harold Bloom is a Shakespeare Scholar and Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale. He was a former Harvard Professor. He knows the Shakespeare plays like no one alive today.
He has said of Shakespeare that these particular plays are his favorites: Henry IV and parts 1 and 2 of Henry V. Bloom makes this choice because of his appreciation and love of the character Falstaff who has interesting roles in these plays. Bloom thinks of himself as a Falstaff character.
Falstaff is a happy guy (Tragic and Comic). He mocks faith, can be lewd, funny and reckless. When thinking of him Bloom offers these comments for traits: 'age, care, wisdom, & reflection!"
He imagines Falstaff and Socrates meeting in a pub and trading wit. This would be the ideal play script and it has been a wish of his for many years. The idea of one character from one play and then another from another and then someone way back in history meeting and talking would take a deep understanding of what the characteristics and personalities of those involved would be. For Bloom this is no problem and he seems to know the characters extremely well
I hope at 86 I can care enough about some of my reading to imagine my own plots. What focus to have carried the image of character you read about for years. It testifies of both the strength of the author and of the student.
Quotes about Falstaff