"Falstaff" redirects here. For other uses, see Falstaff (disambiguation).
Fictional character
John Falstaff
Henriad character
Adolf Schrödter: Falstaff and his page
Created by
William Shakespeare
In-universe information
Gender
Male
Occupation
Knight
Religion
Christian
Nationality
English
Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2, where he is a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V of England. Falstaff is also featured as the buffoonish suitor of two married women in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Though primarily a comic figure, Falstaff embodies a depth common to Shakespeare's major characters. A fat, vain, and boastful knight, he spends most of his time drinking at the Boar's Head Inn with petty criminals, living on stolen or borrowed money. Falstaff leads the apparently wayward Prince Hal into trouble, and is ultimately repudiated after Hal becomes king.
Falstaff has appeared in other works, including operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Otto Nicolai, a "symphonic study" by Edward Elgar, and in Orson Welles's 1966 film Chimes at Midnight. The operas focus on his role in The Merry Wives of Windsor, while the film adapts from the Henriad and The Merry Wives. Welles, who played Falstaff in his film, considered the character to be "Shakespeare's greatest creation".[1] The word "Falstaffian" has entered the English language with a connotation of being corpulent, jolly and debauched.[2]
Sir JohnFalstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully...
Louis, the company was renamed after the Shakespearean character Sir JohnFalstaff in 1903. Production peaked in 1965 with 7,010,218 barrels brewed and...
Sir JohnFalstaff and the father–son relationship he has with Prince Hal, who must choose between loyalty to his father, King Henry IV, and Falstaff. The...
The Merry Wives of Windsor or Sir JohnFalstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed...
reputation as the prototype, in some part, of Shakespeare's character Sir JohnFalstaff. Many historians[who?] argue, however, that he deserves to be famous...
formed the basis for William Shakespeare's character JohnFalstaff, who was originally called John Oldcastle. Oldcastle's date of birth is unknown, although...
round belly, with a good capon lin'd". In addition his character Sir JohnFalstaff is described as or implied to be fond of capons. Caponisation is the...
Outside Page's house, Justice Shallow and Parson Evans are angry at Sir JohnFalstaff and his men for getting Abraham Slender drunk and stealing his wallet...
of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His own Shakespearian roles included Falstaff, Othello, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Henry VIII and Aaron in Titus...
enthusiastic reviews. Gielgud played Henry IV of England; Welles played Sir JohnFalstaff. The long pauses in the middle of the dialogue troubled both actors...
played Sir JohnFalstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, and the title role in Julius Caesar; also playing Falstaff and Malvolio...
organise a robbery. When Falstaff and the others agree, Poins says to Hal that the pair of them should play trick on Falstaff by letting them rob the travellers...
the company is inspired by "the roguish spirit of Shakespeare's Sir JohnFalstaff (Henry IV), dubbed Plump Jack by Queen Elizabeth." The PlumpJack Group...
August 31, 2014. Lenker, Maureen Lee (June 9, 2018). "Tom Hanks delivers a Falstaff for the ages in Henry IV: EW review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved June...
Shallow functions as a dramatic foil to the rotund and worldly Sir JohnFalstaff, who visits Shallow's lands on royal business, but later returns intending...
"Oldcastle" but not "Falstaff." There is also the "castle" reference in IV,v,6 of the same play. The name Falstaff was derived from Sir John Fastolf, who was...
She is an inn-keeper, who runs the Boar's Head Tavern, at which Sir JohnFalstaff and his disreputable cronies congregate. The character appears in four...
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