It was good enough for Shakespeare.  There&#x27;s &quot;Malvolio,&quot; the discontent from <i>Twelfth Night</i>.  &quot;Horatio,&quot; the even-tempered observer in <i>Hamlet</i>.  &quot;Elbow,&quot; the drunken constable in <i>Measure for Measure</i>, and &quot;Dull,&quot; the slow-witted constable from <i>Love&#x27;s Labors Lost</i> (which also features the empty-headed schoolmaster &quot;Holofernes&quot;).  &quot;Prospero,&quot; the artist-magician who makes all right in the end of <i>The Tempest</i>.  &quot;Hotspur,&quot; the (actual) nickname of the irascible warrior from <i>Henry IV Part I</i> who could think of nothing but riding his horse into battle.  (Of course, that was a real historical name, but it&#x27;s no wonder Shakespeare latched onto it.)  And who can forget &quot;Mercutio,&quot; another hothead, the short-lived hyperglot from <i>Romeo and Juilet</i>?  Not to mention &quot;Posthumus,&quot; who all but dies to set right his folly at the beginning of <i>Cymbeline</i>.  And then of course, &quot;Falstaff,&quot; also from <i>Henry IV</i>, that great monument to the art of deception.<p>Does anyone need to guess the profession of Mistress Overdone, Mistress Quickly, or Doll Tearsheet?<p>Lesser characters: Shallow and Slender.<p>Not as sure what to make of Touchstone, Caliban (an anagram for &quot;cannibal&quot;?), and Bottom.<p>Dickens was just imitating, and in many ways bettering, his master.