The first, recently released, is Falstaff: Give Me Life, which has been called an “extended essay” but reads more like 21 ponderous essay-fragments, as though Bloom has compiled his notes and ...

Sblood, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried neat’s tongue, you bull’s pizzle, you stock-fish!” This is Sir John Falstaff, in Shakepeare’s “Henry IV, part I,” mincing no words as he berates young ...