Mistress Quickly: Loyalty to the Wrong Man

    Hostess of the Boar's Head tavern, Eastcheap·Henry IV Part 2
    loyalty
    class
    grief

    First appears: Act 2, Scene 1

    Hostess Quickly runs the Boar's Head tavern in Eastcheap and has been absorbing Falstaff's unpaid debts for years. She attempts to have him arrested in Act 2, Scene 1 and ends up agreeing to lend him more money before the scene is over. This pattern tells you everything about both of them.

    Her language is malapropism at a higher level than Dogberry's. She confuses 'honeyseed' for 'homicide', describes deaths with a mixture of tenderness and wrong words that somehow hits harder than plain prose would. In Act 2, Scene 4, the Boar's Head at its height is the most fully realised interior space in either play.

    She loves Falstaff with a loyalty he does not deserve. In Henry V, she reports his death without a single malapropism. It is the kindest thing Shakespeare ever did for either of them.

    Key Scenes

    Famous Quotes

    “Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my Dolphin-chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire.”

    Mistress Quickly — Act 2, Scene 1

    “Tilly-fally, Sir John, ne'er tell me: your ancient swaggerer comes not in my doors.”

    Mistress Quickly — Act 2, Scene 4
    See all famous Mistress Quickly quotes →

    Themes

    Other Characters in Henry IV Part 2

    Sir John FalstaffKnight, tavern companion, military recruiterPrince HalPrince of Wales, heir to the throneKing Henry IVKing of EnglandJustice ShallowCountry justice of GloucestershireDoll TearsheetCompanion to Falstaff at the Boar's HeadAncient PistolSoldier and tavern brawlerLord Chief JusticeChief Justice of England
    ← Read Henry IV Part 2