I think I would argue that Falstaff is to comedy what Hamlet is to tragedy: a character who embodies virtually every element of his genre, and more. And just as Hamlet's role, somewhat ironically, contains a lot of humour, so does Falstaff's in terms of sadness. Also, both characters are given great soliloquies that can be appreciated outside of the action. Falstaff's great aria on honour in 1 Henry IV, although perhaps not quoted as often as any of Hamlet's, strikes me as one of the most influential ever written. Not only did it supply Charlie Chaplin, and thousands of other comedians, with the subversive tone at the heart of their work, but it seems to be much closer to a twenty-first century mindset toward war and violence than anything written recently. Here's a link to the scene (http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=henry4p1&Act=5&Scene=1&Scope=scene). The excerpt I'm referring to is found at the end, and is the result of Prince Hal responding to Falstaff's request (to be defended if he's found on the ground) with a joke.

One of the many great things about the history plays is the way that they present a cross-section of the societies of the time. Now it's been said that the term "chronicle" is a more accurate term for the plays in question, because they are primarily concerned with the highest levels of power, and to a considerable extant this is true, but they also provide some unforgettable glimpses of life in a wide variety of social levels and settings. And it's a great mental exercise (and great fun) to try to imagine the stories of the characters we encounter, i.e. the events that may have led them to the particular place and time that they occupy in the play(s). In Henry IV, Part One for example, there is a very unusual scene (2.1) involving two carriers and an ostler working at an Inn in Rochester that shows that their concerns are quite removed from the problems of those at the top (managing wars, quelling rebellions and so forth). Or perhaps they are meant to personify the dissatisfaction felt throughout the land. Either way, it's a scene filled with remarkable detail of gritty fifteenth century life. Here's an excerpt:

SECOND CARRIER

Peas and beans are as dank here as a dog, and that

is the next way to give poor jades the bots: this

house is turned upside down since Robin Ostler died.

FIRST CARRIER

Poor fellow, never joyed since the price of oats

rose; it was the death of him.

SECOND CARRIER

I think this be the most villanous house in all

London road for fleas: I am stung like a tench.

FIRST CARRIER

Like a tench! by the mass, there is ne'er a king

christen could be better bit than I have been since

the first cock.

SECOND CARRIER

Why, they will allow us ne'er a jordan, and then we

leak in your chimney; and your chamber-lie breeds

fleas like a loach.

FIRST CARRIER

What, ostler! come away and be hanged!

SECOND CARRIER

I have a gammon of bacon and two razors of ginger,

to be delivered as far as Charing-cross.

FIRST CARRIER

God's body! the turkeys in my pannier are quite

starved. What, ostler! A plague on thee! hast thou

never an eye in thy head? canst not hear? An

'twere not as good deed as drink, to break the pate

on thee, I am a very villain. Come, and be hanged!

hast thou no faith in thee?

Shakespeare's use of figurative language also facilitates the portrayal of large-scale emotion, the type that might be hard to render otherwise. Here is an excerpt from Henry IV, Part One that illustrates the point. The following takes place at the end of 1.2, during which we have met Prince Hal and his friends, Falstaff and Poins, for the first time. After an indescribable exchange which features the dueling wits of Hal and Falstaff, the latter leaves and Poins stays behind to try to get Hal to join in an elaborate practical joke to be played on Falstaff. Hal agrees and Poins, satisfied, leaves as well, at which point Hal speaks the following soliloquy - which shows him to be politically motivated in his dealings with his "friends". The nature of the character of the future Henry V is a divisive matter among Shakespeare commentators, but what I'm interested in here is the powerful imagery and emotion that the language conveys. The passage contains three extended metaphors: the first is the comparison of royalty to the sun (not a new one, but handled freshly here); the second involves the nature of human wishes in regard to play and work; and the third, the difference between a shiny substance and the ground. As a whole, the passage's poetic content allows the audience to enter into the emotional world of a young man considering a glorious future:

I know you all, and will awhile uphold

The unyoked humour of your idleness:

Yet herein will I imitate the sun,

Who doth permit the base contagious clouds

To smother up his beauty from the world,

That, when he please again to be himself,

Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,

By breaking through the foul and ugly mists

Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.

If all the year were playing holidays,

To sport would be as tedious as to work;

But when they seldom come, they wish'd for come,

And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.

So, when this loose behavior I throw off

And pay the debt I never promised,

By how much better than my word I am,

By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;

And like bright metal on a sullen ground,

My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,

Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes

Than that which hath no foil to set it off.

I'll so offend, to make offence a skill;

Redeeming time when men think least I will.