Who Was Falstaff?

Falstaff is an antihero. That Shakespeare based him loosely on real-life characters is neither here nor there, what matters is that Sir John Falstaff, to give him his full name, has always been flawed. So why the fascination? He appears in four Shakespeare plays, inspired more than one opera and still enjoys popularity. In 21st century terms, he is the very definition of that pale, male and stale idiom, not blessed with a single shred of self-awareness.