Pistol: The Man Who Only Speaks in Old Plays
First appears: Act 2, Scene 4
Ancient Pistol speaks almost entirely in garbled fragments of old stage plays. He is a walking parody of theatrical bombast, someone who has absorbed stage language and cannot switch it off. 'Base is the slave that pays!' is not how anyone speaks. Pistol speaks like that all the time.
He arrives drunk in Act 2, Scene 4 and immediately starts trouble, insulting Doll Tearsheet and threatening everyone in reach. Falstaff throws him out by force, which is the most physical action Falstaff takes in either play.
He carries his stage persona into Henry V, where he survives the war and limps back from France with nothing. He is the comic underworld's link across the entire tetralogy.
Key Scenes
Famous Quotes
“Base is the slave that pays.”
Ancient Pistol — Act 2, Scene 4
“Under which king, Bezonian? Speak, or die.”
Ancient Pistol — Act 5, Scene 3