Enter Falstaff

The Merry Wives of Windsor introduces one of the most analyzed and timeless characters in all of Shakespeare’s plays: Falstaff, the knightly, intrepid, corpulent, man-about-town appearing in the two Henry IV plays and in The Merry Wives of Windsor. In The Merry Wives, he is a bumbling, fumbling, almost purely comic devise and, as such, has been somewhat derided over the years by critics, especially when contrasted with the much more nuanced Falstaff of the histories. Although I have not read Henry IV yet, the Falstaff there is apparently nothing like the Falstaff here. But the Falstaff here is still interesting, despite all the nay-saying. I found him very intriguing, and so did Anne Barton, as revealed in her Riverside introduction:

"Although Falstaff is without the mental agility he displays in the histories, he remains a large-than-life mythic figure. He is the spirit of festive consequence: self-indulgent, amoral, anarchic, a reveler who is out to disrupt the everyday social order."

What’s not to like? Indeed, this character sets up so much of the comedy of the play and is the basis for so much of the complexity and intrigue found within that it is scarcely possible to even imagine the play without him. Falstaff is clearly the linchpin of The Merry Wives of Windsor and this comedy is a comedy in a large part (no pun intended) because of him. It must have been a particularly delightful experience for contemporary audiences, to see this upper-crusty knight continuously humiliated and made low by The People, over and over again, throughout the play. You can almost hear the laughter of all those voices, across time, wholly reveling in the fun poked at that high character in that highly class-conscious society.

So go Falstaff! I look forward to meeting you again. But it is time to move on to the next one, a play I have been anticipating greatly: Much Ado About Nothing. For this one, a triple threat: reading the play, then watching the Branagh movie, then seeing the live performance by the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theater. Exciting, eh?