Henry IV, Part I second lecture Falstaff!

“What a devil hast thou to do with the time of day?” (I,2, 5) Falstaff seems to exist outside of time. In tavern scenes the plot comes to a standstill. A kind of anarchic figure of opposition to everything serious. Lord of misrule. Counterpoised to Hotspur and “honor,” military purpose. To the King and political purpose. To truth, honesty, virtue, sobriety.

Why is Falstaff likeable? Should we like him? He’s a thief, a liar, a cheat, a coward, totally irresponsible. He takes bribes from honest men (though this was legal) and drafts only the dregs of society. And only three of his 150-man company are left alive. Reality seems absolutely malleable in his hands.

The cause of wit “Men of all sorts take a pride to gird [or mock] at me. The brain of this foolish compounded clay, man, is not able to invent anything that intends to laughter more than I invent or is invented on me. I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.” (Henry IV, Part 2, I, 2). Hal never funny except when with Falstaff: then F’s “sweet wag.” A kind of eternal war of wits between them.

Protean Falstaff A master of improv. Try to follow his logic: I, 2, 57ff. His “youth”: II, 2, 81ff. His act in response to the robbery: II, 4, 157ff. The multiplying rogues in buckram suits. Acts out the battle: ll “Kendall green” but too dark to see your nose. Not “on compulsion.” Houdini! “By the Lord, I knew yet as well as he that made ye... Was it for me to kill the true prince?”

Clip of play within play scene from BBC video

The play within the play, II, 4, 360 “This chair shall be my state...” “I will do it in King Cambises’ vein.” The style comes from Euphues, a popular fiction about the corruption of a youth. Except line 415. “Depose me?” !!! Hal too does the Euphuistic turn: 432ff. Banish plump Jack and banish all the world” “I do. I will.” And the larger play turns...

“Do I not dwindle?” The occult effect of Hal’s repentence? But of course he doesn’t dwindle. Pretence of repentence gives way to “sing me a bawdy song.” More improv humor from Falstaff – Bardolph’s face, the hostess, the pocket picking. His “forgiveness” of the hostess. “Random”?

Behind Falstaff: the morality tradition A tradition of a virtuous youth corrupted by bad companions and a dissolute Vice figure. The Vice leads the youth into a sinful life – wine, women, song. Titles like Youth, The World and the Child, Hickscorner, Nice Wanton, The Longer Thou Livest the More Fool Thou Art – plays from earlier in the century. Vice character always the most fun. Whole tradition derives from story of Prodigal Son. Except that here the prodigal youth sometimes ends up lost and carted off to hell by the vices.

Falstaff as “Vice” “If I do not beat thee out of thy kingdom with a dagger of lath and drive all thy subjects afore thee like a flock of wild geese...” The “dagger of lath” – of wood – was one of the emblems of the Vice character. Falstaff invokes the tradition in play within play: II, 4, 385ff. Only to reject, comically, that he is the vice. Rather he’s the figure of grace, virtue (l 405, 412ff)

Hal turns the tables “There is a devil that haunts thee in the likeness of an old fat man.” “That villainous abominable misleader of youth, Falstaff, that old white-bearded Satan.” “that reverend vice, that gray iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years” – all terms for the Vice. His plea: “Banish him not thy Harry’s company.” “I do. I will.”

Falstaff’s comic take on the tradition He is the youth, Hal the Vice. “O, thou has a damnable iteration, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint.” (I, 2, 90). III, 3: “Well, I’ll repent...” “Thou knowest in the state of innocency Adam fell, and what should poor Jack Falstaff do in the days of villainy? “If I do grow great, I’ll grow less; for I’ll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly, as a nobleman should.” His last words in the play, but do we believe him?

Hal’s reformation “For all the world/ As thou art to this hour was Richard then/ When I set foot at Ravensburgh;/ And even as I was then is Percy now.” Hal’s claim: “I will redeem all this on Percy’s head.” King’s characterization of the prodigal prince (III, 2): fathers and sons. “And I will die a hundred thousand deaths/ Ere I break the smallest parcel of this vow.”

But the reality of Hal’s reformation? His use of the tavern world: “I know you all and will awhile uphold/ The unyoked humor of your idleness...” (I, 2, 188) Tavern world as foil. “Redeeming time.” What does Hal gain from Falstaff? Anything?