Valor's Better Parts: Backgrounds and Meanings of Shakespeare's Most Difficult Proverb.

Discusses the complexity of a proverb uttered by the character Falstaff in one of the plays of the English dramatist William Shakespeare. Subdued rhetorical potency of the line about valor being the better part of discretion; Search for the maxim that Falstaff misapplies; Proverb's achievement of metaphorical strength by finding similarity in dissimilarity and discretion in valor.