Questions about John Falstaff
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Who is John Falstaff in Shakespeare's plays?
Sir John Falstaff is a fictional knight who appears in Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and The Merry Wives of Windsor, and whose death is mourned in Henry V. He is the dissolute companion of Prince Hal, the future King Henry V, spending most of his time drinking at the Boar's Head Inn with petty criminals and living on stolen or borrowed money. Orson Welles, who played the character in his 1965 film Chimes at Midnight, called Falstaff Shakespeare's greatest creation.
Why did Shakespeare change Falstaff's name from Oldcastle?
Shakespeare originally named the character John Oldcastle, after a real historical knight from Herefordshire who was executed for heresy and rebellion in 1417 and venerated by Protestants as a martyr. Lord Cobham, a descendant of Oldcastle, complained, forcing the name change. The name Falstaff appears in the Henry IV, Part 1 quarto of 1598, and the epilogue to Part 2, published in 1600, states explicitly: 'Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man.'
What happens to Falstaff at the end of Henry IV, Part 2?
When Falstaff learns that Prince Hal has become King Henry V, he rushes to London expecting great rewards for his long friendship with the prince. The new king rejects him, saying he has changed and can no longer associate with such people. The London lowlifes who expected to benefit under Hal's rule are purged and imprisoned by the authorities.
How does Falstaff die in Shakespeare's Henry V?
Falstaff does not appear on stage in Henry V; his death is described in Act 2, Scene 3 by Mistress Quickly. She tells his followers that he fumbled with the sheets, played with flowers, talked of green fields, and called out 'God, God, God' three or four times before his feet and body turned as cold as stone.
What operas are based on the character of Falstaff?
Several operas draw on the Falstaff story, including Antonio Salieri's Falstaff in 1799, Otto Nicolai's Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor in 1849, Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff in 1893 with a libretto by Arrigo Boito, Ralph Vaughan Williams's Sir John in Love in 1929, and Gustav Holst's At the Boar's Head in 1925. Most of these adapt The Merry Wives of Windsor; Holst's opera draws instead from the Henry IV plays.
What does 'Falstaffian' mean and where does the word come from?
The word 'Falstaffian' has entered the English language with connotations of corpulence, jollity, and debauchery. It derives from the Shakespeare character Sir John Falstaff, a fat, vain, and boastful knight who drinks heavily and lives on stolen or borrowed money across three of Shakespeare's plays.