No, Master Brook; but the peaking cornuto her husband, Master Brook, dwelling in a continual ’larum of jealousy, comes me in the instant of our encounter, after we had embraced, kiss’d, protested, and, as it were, spoke the prologue of our comedy; and at his heels a rabble of his companions, thither provoked and instigated by his distemper, and, forsooth, to search his house for his wife’s love.
-Sir John Falstaff
The Merry Wives of Windsor Act
III, Scene v, Line 71
And what do you think of that? That's a bit of a
long one, so assuming you’re willing to work your way through it, I’ll give you
some context.
Falstaff is explaining to Master Brook (who is
actually Master Ford in disguise) how he, Falstaff, was surprised by Master
Brook whilst he, Falstaff, was in the process of seducing Master Brook’s wife.
A peaking cornuto is a sneaking cuckold. Given that definition,
and that bit of context, the passage should make some sense. I suggest you read
it again armed with this information.
Now I went back and checked. This is the twenty-fourth
time that John Falstaff has been the speaker of our Totally Random line. That’s
quite a bit. Consider though, that he was in three plays: the two Henry IV’s
and this one, The Merry Wives of Windsor. In fact, based on at least one source
that I found, Falstaff has more total lines (again, over the course of three
plays) than any other Shakespeare character. Yes, Hamlet has the most lines in
one play, but he was only in one play, whilst Falstaff has more over the course of three plays.
To be sure, Falstaff is one of the favorites of many,
many esteemed Shakespeareans, not the least of which was Harold Bloom. And here’s
an interesting fact, I had two connections with Prof. Bloom. It seems his
masseuse was my daughter’s good friend and roommate, and his dentist was my
dentist of the past forty years (until he retired two months ago, darn it). Isn’t that
interesting? Well, I thought it was.
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