With the prevailing tendency to create Shakespeare in our own image, it is easy to go astray here. More recent Shakespearean critics have taken a far different view and have found coherence and relevance in this episode. Perhaps Hal's exploits with the drawers may be considered "miserable attempts at mirth" introduced "to show the quality of the prince's wit when unsustained by Falstaff's," the whole comprising "a very strange incoherent rhapsody" best explained by the prince's volatile nature and by the fact that he has "spent several hours drinking with the drawers." This is the view taken by an early commentator ( New Variorum). No reader will want to miss any part of the fun but no careful reader should be so carried away by Falstaff's superb performance as to miss the ideas relating to the theme and to the characterizations.įirst to be explained is the import of Hal's remarks about his relationship with the tavern tapsters and apprentices, to whom he refers as "loggerheads" (blockheads) and "a leash (a pack, as of leashed animals) of drawers." To many, this episode hardly reflects favorably upon the character of Prince Hal, particularly the trick played upon the lowly Francis. This scene of broad comedy is at once one of the most hilarious in all literature and also one of the most significant in this play. Hal himself will report to his father in the morning and will see that the stolen money is returned. On inspiration, Hal decides to pester Falstaff by giving him a command of foot troops which he will have to lead against the rebels. "Search his pockets," says Hal to Peto, who finds only a tavern bill for a bit of food and vast quantities of sack. The carrier who accompanies the sheriff into the tavern identifies one of the thieves as a gross fat man - "as fat as butter." Hal assures them that the man is not present and that he will answer personally for any charges made.Īfter the sheriff and the carrier have left, Falstaff is discovered fast asleep and snoring behind the arras. At Hal's request, Falstaff hides behind the arras and the others go upstairs, leaving the prince with Peto to face the law. The arrival of the sheriff and "all the watch" at the tavern door interrupts this merriment. The names of renowned Hotspur ("that same mad fellow of the North," as Falstaff calls him), Mortimer, Douglas, and "that devil Glendower" leave him unperturbed unlike Sir John, he cannot be a coward.īut Hal must appear before his royal father, and this provides the subject for the play extempore, a kind of rehearsal, in which the prince and Falstaff play alternate roles. When Falstaff returns with news of the revolt of the Percies, the prince seems almost totally unconcerned. At Hal's request, Falstaff leaves to "send him packing." During Sir John's absence, Bardolph and Peto tell how the old knight coached them to back up his preposterous story. Let all be merry, he exclaims and suggests a "play extempore" - a bit of amateur play acting - as a source of amusement.Ī messenger from the king is announced. His spirits are uplifted, for he now knows that Hal has the money taken from the travelers. Valiant though he is, never would he be one to kill the heir-apparent, whom he recognized immediately by instinct. Falstaff, in his special way, does exactly that. At last the prince gives the true account of what happened and challenges Falstaff to explain away the fact that he has proved himself to be a coward and liar.
Hal and Falstaff exchange derogatory epithets. He then tells how courageously he fought at Gadshill against enemies who, first said to number one hundred, are successively reduced to six or seven and, as he testifies, two particular ones in buckram suits become successively four, seven, nine, and finally eleven. First the prince, then Poins, calls for poor Francis, who, striving to please both, runs up and down stairs in a ridiculous manner, answering each call with "Anon, sir." Hal makes the newly-arrived Falstaff and the rest of the thieves wait at the door while he comments on the significance of Francis' behavior, curiously shifting to a comparison of himself with "the Hotspur of the North."įalstaff and his companions enter, the fat knight complaining bitterly about the prevalence of cowardice and calling for sack. He engages Francis, one of them, in a bewildering game with Poins' help. Hal tells his companion that he has won much honor by being accepted as "sworn brother" to the lowly tavern servants. At the Boar's-Head Tavern, Prince Hal and Poins are entertaining themselves.
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