And
of women.
-Bardolph
King Henry the Fifth Act
II, scene iii Line 33
Well folks, believe it or not this is the third time that we
have arrived at page 493 of my compilation. That’s right, Henry the Fifth. So
far on this one page we’ve sampled the end of Act II, Scene ii where Henry is
sending some guys to their death (9/16 post), and the beginning of Scene iii
where a bunch of Falstaff’s friends are in the bar talking about the recent
death of Falstaff (9/26 post). And today we’re back in the bar in that same
conversation about Falstaff.
They’re talking about Falstaff’s last minutes and they’re
saying that he cried that he was out of liquor and out of women. Hostess, who
was there with Falstaff at the end, certifies the liquor claim, but denies the
women claim. Boy (remember Boy from the 9/26 post?) disputes this and says he
did cry that he was out of women and that women were ‘devils incarnate’. So I’m
not exactly sure who was there at Falstaff’s end, Hostess, boy, or both, but
whoever was there, did Falstaff cry out for women at the end, or not? We have
conflicting reports and how appropriate of Will to do this to us. Does this guy
ever just give us the straight scoop and make it easy or does he always have to
make us work at it
However, the bigger question in my mind is not how Falstaff
died, but why. That is to say, why did Will kill him off? From everything I’ve read
about him, Falstaff was one of Will’s most memorable characters. In fact he later
created a whole play just around Falstaff. Again, I don’t know that play so I’m
not sure how he went about resurrecting Falstaff. But why kill him off in the first
place if he was so popular? Oh, the mysteries of Will.
Here’s a pic of Falstaff from my A.L. Rowse book. There’s a
bunch of pics of different actors portraying Falstaff, and they all show a
large, somewhat comical looking gent, almost always with a drink in his hand.
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