Henry IV Part 1
Before we think about Hal's
character in Part 2, let's recap Hal's trajectory in Henry IV Part 1.
In Part 1, Hal spent most of his time carousing with his low-life
Eastcheap pals and taking every opportunity to thumb his nose at authority,
which caused a huge rift between Hal and his father, King Henry IV. Henry IV
worried about what would happen when Hal inherited the crown. Hal shocked the
audience at the end of Act 1, Scene 2, when he delivered an infamous speech
that was all about how his bad behavior was just a disguise or a role to be
played. Hal said that he was pretending to be a degenerate in order to stage
a dramatic "reformation" that would amaze his critics and make him a
better king (Henry IV Part 1, 1.2.29). By the play's end, the prince
redeemed himself on the battlefield by saving his father from the Scottish
Douglas and by killing the rebel Hotspur. As a war hero, Hal shrugged off his
bad-boy reputation and demonstrated his ability to govern. (You might want to
read our in-depth
Sir John Falstaff
Usually called Falstaff but sometimes called Jack. A fat, cheerful, witty,
aging criminal, he has long been Prince Hal's mentor and close friend. He
pretended to have killed Hotspur at the Battle of Shrewsbury, and Prince
Hal--the actual killer--agreed to go along with the lie. For this reason,
everyone gives Falstaff much more respect than he deserves.
Lord Chief Justice
At first, Prince Hal is set in opposition to King Henry IV's Lord Chief Justice (LCJ), the guy appointed to uphold "the majesty and power of law and justice" (5.2.9). Apparently, the LCJ once threw the prince in the slammer for boxing him on the ears. This is just an old fashioned way of saying Hal once smacked the Lord Chief Justice upside his head and has been at odds with the guy ever since. After King Henry IV dies and Prince Hal officially becomes King Henry V, the LCJ is worried that the new monarch will punish him.When Hal becomes the King Henry V, he needs a trusty advisor and new BFF, especially since being friends with the degenerate Falstaff is now out of the question. This job calls for the Lord Chief Justice, wouldn't you say? The Lord Chief Justice seems to be the only honest and impartial guy in the entire kingdom, which is why Hal thinks it's a good idea to have him on his side. He says to the LCJ "My voice shall sound as you do prompt my ear / And I will stoop and humble my intents / To your well-practiced wise decision" (5.2.4). In other words, from here on out, the LCJ has got the king's ear. Hal also embraces the LCJ as a "father" figure, which means that the Lord Chief Justice has taken the place of Falstaff, who was Hal's surrogate father figure in Henry IV Part 1.
Mistress Quickly
Mistress Quickly is the hostess of the Boar's Head Tavern, where every degenerate in Eastcheap likes to hang out. Because of her association with the topsy-turvy world of the tavern, Mistress Quickly is an important figure that embodies the play's rebellious spirit. Recently widowed, Mistress Quickly falls prey to Falstaff's deception – he swindles her out of a lot of money after promising to marry her. Here's an example where Mistress Quickly orders two officers to arrest Falstaff:I pray ye, since my
exion is entered and my case so openly known to the
world, let him be brought in to his answer. A
hundred mark is a long one for a poor lone woman to
bear: and I have borne, and borne, and borne, and
have been fubbed off, and fubbed off, and fubbed
off […]
Do your offices, do your offices: Master
Fang and Master Snare, do me, do me, do me your offices.
Mistress Quickly says that since her legal action ("exion") has been entered and made known to the world, she wants Falstaff to answer for his crimes against her. There's only so much she can "bear" (put up with) because Falstaff owes her so much money. At the same time, her complaints are full of double entendres, which makes her lawsuit seem a bit silly. Perhaps inadvertently, she implies that her legal case and her body are "openly known to the world." She also says she "bears" the burden of Falstaff's debt, with a pun on "bearing" the weight of Falstaff as a sexual partner. The unintentional bawdiness of her speech is comically exaggerated when she says been "fubbed off, and fubbed off, and fubbed off" and when she orders the officers to "do" their duties on her behalf: "do me, do me, do me," she says. Mistress Quickly, like her speech, is also totally out of control.
Doll Tearsheet
Doll Tearsheet is a smart, saucy, knife-wielding, prostitute, who hangs out at the Boar's Head Tavern. She's Mistress Quickly's BFF and Falstaff's favorite "companion." Unlike Mistress Quickly, Tearsheet is pretty smart and can definitely hold her own in a verbal smack down. She can also hold her own in a bar brawl, which she does in Act 2, Scene 4, when she gets into a little dustup with Pistol. All of these activities make Doll Tearsheet an unruly figure – she flouts male authority, civil order, and social convention. Though the Henry plays seem to celebrate this kind of disorder and rebellion, it ultimately restores order at the conclusion of Henry IV Part 2, when Doll and the other Eastcheap rowdies are put in their places. At the end of Act 5, Scene 4, Doll and Mistress Quickly are arrested for murder on the streets of London.Pistol
Pistol is a "swaggering" officer (or "Ensign") who serves under Falstaff in the king's army. Despite Pistol's military duties in the service of the crown, like the rest of the rowdy Eastcheap crew, he is a significant figure in the play's portrayal of civil disorder.What, you want evidence? Let's see, Pistol's favorite hobbies include brawling in taverns (with men and women) and talking trash, which famously results in him being thrown out of his favorite bar, the Boar's Head Tavern in Act 2, Scene 4. By the end of the play, Pistol is also implicated in the murder of a man (we're not given much information about this) when two officers arrest Doll Tearsheet and Mistress Quickly in Act 5, Scene 4. So, we might say Pistol is kind of a "pistol" – that is, he's explosive, violent, dangerous, and we never know when he might "go off." He's also kind of fun, in a "gosh he's not a good guy, but happens to be entertaining" kind of way.
The title page of the 1600 Quarto edition of the play (which promises the "the humours of Sir John Falstaff, and the swaggering Pistoll,") suggests that Shakespeare's original audiences loved this outrageous character. What's so funny about a violent guy with a big mouth? Well, part of it has to do with the fact that Pistol tends to misquote lines from famous Elizabethan plays like Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great (c. 1588), which was known for it's big, bold language and violence. The fact that Pistol mangles the lines suggests that's he's kind of a poser and not entirely in control of his own outrageous language, which seems to make him all the more dangerous and comical.
A boy whom Prince Hal has
assigned to serve Falstaff as his page; he carries Falstaff's sword and runs
his errands.
Friends of Falstaff and Prince Hal.
Formerly highwaymen and robbers, they have, like Falstaff, gained money and
prestige since the Battle of
Shrewsbury. Poins is the smartest of
the bunch and the closest to Hal. Bardolph, an insatiable drinker, has a
famously bright red nose.
An army ensign ("ancient" meant
"ensign" in Elizabethan English), he serves under Falstaff and is
extremely aggressive and prone to fighting.
Army recruits whom Falstaff inspects in
Gloucestershire (III.ii). Only Shadow, Wart, and Feeble come with him to the
war; the others bribe their way out.
A powerful northern clergyman
who leads the rebellion against King Henry IV.
Two lords who conspire with the
Archbishop of York to overthrow King Henry IV.
Usually called Northumberland
but sometimes called Percy. A powerful northern nobleman whose brother Worcester
and son Hotspur have recently been killed in battle against King Henry IV.
Northumberland's servant.
Dead before the play begins, he is
often referred to in its early scenes. He was Northumberland's son and a leader
of the rebellion against the
king. He was also called Percy or
Harry Percy. Prince Hal killed him at the Battle of Shrewsbury, but everyone thinks
that the killer was Falstaff.
An ally of Northumberland who brings
him the false news of Hotspur’s success in I.i. (Not to be confused with
Falstaff's friend Bardolph.)
A mysterious and influential leader
of a group of rebel guerrilla fighters in Wales, his character never actually
appears in the play.
Proprietor of the seedy Boar's Head Tavern in
Eastcheap, London. She has a dim wit but a good heart.
Falstaff's favorite prostitute and a
good friend of Mistress Quickly. She has a bottomless repertoire of insults and
seems to be both fiercer and smarter than most of the law officers hanging
around Eastcheap. She may be in love with Falstaff.
Incompetent officers of the law upon
whom Mistress Quickly calls to arrest Falstaff in II.i.
Middle-class country landowners who are also
justices of the peace (minor local law officers). They are cousins. Shallow is
an old school friend of Falstaff's. The two both live up to their names:
Justice Shallow talks endlessly about trivial topics, while Justice Silence
barely ever opens his mouth--except to sing raunchy songs when he gets drunk.
An honest, industrious, and
talkative household servant of Justice Shallow.
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