Doll Tearsheet: Warmth and No Illusions
First appears: Act 2, Scene 4
Doll Tearsheet is Falstaff's companion at the Boar's Head, and their scene in Act 2, Scene 4 is the play's warmest and most melancholy. They sit after supper, Falstaff old and fat, Doll knowing his age better than he does. She calls him 'as valiant as the wrathful dove or most magnanimous mouse.' It is an insult delivered with complete affection.
When Pistol arrives drunk and dangerous, it is Falstaff who throws him out, his one moment of actual physical courage across two plays. Doll cheers him on without restraint.
She is arrested at the end of the play, along with Mistress Quickly. The charge is connected to a death at the tavern. Shakespeare does not give her a final scene. She just stops appearing.
Key Scenes
Famous Quotes
“Thou whoreson little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig, when wilt thou leave fighting o' days and foining o' nights, and begin to patch up thine old body for heaven?”
Doll Tearsheet — Act 2, Scene 4
“I love thee better than I love e'er a scurvy young boy of them all.”
Doll Tearsheet — Act 2, Scene 4