SIR JOHN/JACK FALSTAFF APPEARS IN FOUR WS PLAYS - MORE THAN ANY OTHER OF THE BARD'S CREATIONS.
In both parts of Henry IV, Falstaff is Prince Hal's noisy sack-drinking companion. In The Merry Wives of Windsor he is the blustering buffoonish old knight who tries to woo the wives, Mistress Page and Mistress Ford, while in Henry V, he plays a passive role as we learn of his death but he doesn't actually say anything on stage.
He is a vain, fat (you'll never see a skinny Falstaff on the stage), cowardly braggart. These last two qualities are extremely well exemplified in Henry IV, pt. 1. Here he boasts how he and several of his lowlife cronies beat off eleven men (he starts off his story with two) during an ambush at Gadshill. Later in the same play when he has a chance to earn some real glory at the Battle of Shrewsbury, by killing Douglas, one of Prince Hal's enemies, he decides to play dead instead and later claim that it was he, Falstaff, who wounded Douglas.
In Henry IV pt.2 Falstaff and his disreputable bunch of cronies are disowned by Prince Hal when the latter learns that he is to be the future King Henry V.
Falstaff returns to play his opportunistic self in The Merry Wives of Windsor (see previous blog for more details) as the unsuccessful suitor of Mistress Page and Mistress Ford. One of the most famous scenes in this play is when the two wives after learning of Falstaff's amorous tricks, stuff the fat knight into a laundry basket.
Dr. Samuel Johnson (of Dictionary fame) described Falstaff thus:
Thou compound of sense and vice, of sense which may be admired, but not esteemed, of vice which may be despised, but hardly detested.
Orson Welles, some 250 years later said, "Falstaff is the greatest conception of a great man, the most complete man, in all drama.
I have played the role three times in the theatre and now in film, (in 'Chimes at Midnight') and I'm not convinced that I have realised it properly yet. It's the most difficult part I have ever played...I feel he is a wit rather than a clown, and I don't think much of the few moments in the film where I am simply funny, because I don't think that he is."
Falstaff is one of Shakespeare's most popular characters. His appetites for food, drink and women are legendary and yet despite some of his clowning, he is no unthinking fool. His soliloquy on honour the the middle of the Battle of Shrewsbury is one of the most memorable speeches in the play.
What is honour? A word. What is that word, honour? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it?.... (Henry IV, pt.I - Act V, sc.i)
Finally, I will sum up this 'huge hill of flesh' by paraphrasing The Friendly Shakespeare by Norrie Epstein. He writes that Falstaff is not just a character; he's a phenomenon. He's been the inspiration for songs, paintings, beer and operas. Actors have made their careers playing him... he is so inimitable that his name has become an adjective - 'Falstaffian.'
Falstaff is an opportunistic schemer, a sad old clown, a corruptor of youth and a philosopher. Falstaff has seduced the greatest actors: it was Orson Welles, life's ambition to play it, and the role capped Ralph Richardson's career. Like Hamlet, Falstaff transcends gender. The actress Pat Carroll earned accolades for her performance in The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Perhaps her part was made easier by the fact that although Falstaff boasts of his sexual prowess, he's usually too drunk to consummate his lust.
Next time, how many Friars did WS write about?
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