Falstaff: Running Out of Road
First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
Falstaff in Part 2 is a man whose debts are catching up with him. The Lord Chief Justice confronts him in Act 1, Scene 2 about Gad's Hill. Mistress Quickly has him arrested for unpaid bills. He owes money everywhere, and everywhere he talks his way out of it. But the exits are getting narrower.
The Shallow scenes in Gloucestershire are among the best writing in either play. Falstaff recruits soldiers for the wars, accepts bribes from men who can afford to buy their way out of service, and conscripts the ones who cannot pay. He listens to Shallow drone about their shared youth and privately thinks Shallow was always a fool, though Falstaff remembers their past more honestly than Shallow does.
The rejection in Act 5, Scene 5 ('I know thee not, old man') is as cold as anything Shakespeare wrote. Hal has been rehearsing it since Act 1, Scene 2 of Part 1. Knowing it is coming does not make it easier to watch.
Key Scenes
Famous Quotes
“I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.”
Sir John Falstaff — Act 1, Scene 2
“We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow.”
Sir John Falstaff — Act 3, Scene 2