How! Poor? Look upon his face; what call you
rich? Let them coin his nose, let them coin his
cheeks: I’ll not pay a denier. What, will you
make a younker of me? Shall I not take mine
ease in mine inn, but I shall have my pocket
pickt? I have lost a seal-ring of my
grandfather’s worth
forty mark.
-Sir John Falstaff
King Henry the Fourth Part I Act III, Scene iii,
Line 81
Well this is very typical John Falstaff baloney. I
think you could come up with many, many, many modern actors and roles which
pull off of Falstaff. From WC Fields to… I can’t think of a modern day one, but
it’ll come to me. He’s part flim flam, part false bravado, and yet perhaps more
fully human than any other of Will’s characters. And I guess that may be why he is
so revered by the Shakespeare faithful. Yes, I believe revere is the right word.
2 comments:
I understand very little of this excerpt but even though I can't understand it, this Falstaff sounds like a dweeb.
A dweeb? I've never heard him referred to as a dweeb. But I can see how that would fit.
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