Falstaff

Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare as a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V. more...

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A fat, vainglorious, and cowardly knight, Falstaff leads the apparently wayward Prince Hal into trouble, but he is ultimately repudiated after Hal becomes king.

Shakespearean scholar Edmond Malone claimed, on uncertain authority, that John Heminges was the actor Shakespeare had in mind to portray Falstaff; an alternative is that Falstaff was written for Will Kempe, the clown of Shakespeare's company. The original actor was later succeeded by John Lowin, another comic actor.

Though primarily a comic figure, Falstaff still embodies a kind of depth common to Shakespeare's tricky comedy. In Act II, Scene III of Henry V, his death is described by the character "Hostess", possibly the Mistress Quickly of Henry IV, who describes his body in terms that echo the death of Socrates.

Appearances

He appears in the following plays:

Henry IV, part 1; Henry IV, part 2; The Merry Wives of Windsor;

His death is mentioned in Henry V but has no lines, nor is it directed that he appear on stage. However, many stage and film adaptations have seen it necessary to include Falstaff for the insight he provides into King Henry V's character. The most notable examples in cinema are Laurence Olivier's 1946 version and Kenneth Branagh's 1989 film, both of which draw additional material from the Henry IV plays.

There are several works about Falstaff, inspired by Shakespeare's plays:

Orson Welles's Chimes at Midnight (1966) compiles the two Henry IV plays into a single, condensed storyline, while adding a handful of scenes from Richard II and Henry V. The movie, also known as Falstaff, features Welles himself in the title role.; Falstaff (1893), Giuseppe Verdi's last opera, with a libretto by Arrigo Boito. It is mostly based upon The Merry Wives of Windsor.; Falstaff (1799), Antonio Salieri's opera, with a libretto by Carlo Prospers Defranchesi, which is also based upon The Merry Wives of Windsor.; Falstaff (1913), a "symphonic study" by Elgar, which is a sympathetic and programmatic musical portrait.; Falstaff, A Hungarian TV movie based on Henry IV, part 1 and Henry IV, part 2, prepared by László Vámos and Péter Müller; Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (1849) by Carl Otto Nicolai, based upon The Merry Wives of Windsor.; Sir John in Love, 1924 – 1928, an opera by composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, based upon The Merry Wives of Windsor, and notable for including an arrangement of the tune "Greensleeves".; The opera "Plump Jack" (1984) by Gordon Getty.; The Tragically Hip song "Fiddler's Green" mentions Falstaff.; The Gus Van Sant film My Own Private Idaho offers a version of the two parts of Henry IV in which Falstaff is Bob, a derelict and petty thief.; The novel Falstaff by Robert Nye.; Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, where Falstaff is an operative of Jurisfiction, the policing agency that operates within fiction to safeguard the stability of the written word. He is presented as a ladies' man.; The poem Gecko's in Obscure Light by William Logan (poet) contains a line "beneath bellies distended as Falstaff’s". The poem appeared in the New Yorker in April 2007 and can be read on The New Yorker's web site.;

Read more at Wikipedia.org