Falstaff
The literary figure of Sir John Falstaff first appeared in the plays Henry IV, Part 1 , Henry IV, Part 2 and The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare . He is a stout, drinking and rowdy soldier who is portrayed in The Funny Wives of Windsor as having a tendency to overestimate himself and in Henry IV as melancholy. The name Falstaff is often used for a big show-off and connoisseur.
The figure was originally to be called Sir John Oldcastle and was renamed Falstaff because of the similarity with a well-known knight. The figure of Falstaff was very popular and was taken up by Shakespeare and other authors and composers and processed as a comic figure in their own works.
In Henry V , Sir John Falstaff as well as his followers and household also play a role in the framework plot. Here we experience the dying Falstaff who has fallen into royal disgrace and who no longer lives to see his king's French campaign of 1415.
Although the illness and death of Falstaff are only briefly mentioned in scenes II.1 and II.3 in the original Shakespeare version of Heinrich V and Falstaff no longer appears as a stage figure in the play, he still appears as an independent figure in numerous Theater productions or film adaptations of Shakespeare's Henry V, for example in Laurence Olivier's famous film version from 1944 or in Kenneth Branagh's 1989 film with George Robey and Robbie Coltrane as actors.
Works (title character)
- Falstaff ossia Le tre burle ; Opera by Antonio Salieri (1799)
- Falstafferel, let us see you! by Ludwig van Beethoven (WoO 184) (1823)
- Falstaff ; Opera by Michael William Balfe (1838)
- Falstaff ; Opera by Adolphe Adam (1856)
- Falstaff ; Opera by Giuseppe Verdi (1893)
- Sir John in Love by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1924–28, WP 1929)
- Falstaff - bells at midnight ; Orson Welles' film collage basedon five plays by Shakespeare
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Berkeley University database ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ See the information in the Encyclopædia Britannica , online Sir John Falstaff - Fictional Character , accessed on April 4, 2016. See also Henry IV Character Introduction - Sir John Falstaff . On: University Society. New York: Shakespeare Online. Aug. 20, 2000 , accessed April 4, 2016, and Amanda Mabillard: Shakespeare's Falstaff . On: University Society. New York: Shakespeare Online. Aug 20, 2000 , accessed April 4, 2016.
- ↑ See the information in the Encyclopædia Britannica , online Sir John Falstaff - Fictional Character , accessed on April 4, 2016.
- ↑ See e.g. E.g. the online text edition William Shakespeare: Henry V, Act II, Scene I and William Shakespeare: Henry V, Act II, Scene III . On: University Society. New York: Shakespeare Online. August 20, 2000 , accessed April 4, 2016.
- ↑ http://www.lvbeethoven.com/Oeuvres/ListWoO.html