The Life of Sir John Falstaff
The Life of Sir John Falstaff

Author: Robert Barnabas Brough

Publisher:

Published: 1858

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13:

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"The plan of this work [is] ... to illustrate the life of Sir John Falstaff exclusively from the most striking passages in his career, as invented by Shakespeare"--Preface

The Real Falstaff
The Real Falstaff

Author: Stephen Cooper

Publisher: Casemate Publishers

Published: 2011-02-23

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 1844687740

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This historical study examines the life and military accomplishments of the medieval knight who inspired one of Shakespeare’s most beloved characters. One of the most famous English knights of the Hundred Years War, Sir John Fastolf is widely thought to be a model for Shakespeare’s immortal character, Sir John Falstaff. In The Real Falstaff, historian Stephen Cooper examines the link in full, shedding light on his story as well as the declining English fortunes during the last phase of the Hundred Years War. Witnessing both the triumphs of Henry V, and the disasters of the 1450s, Fastolf was one of the last of the brave but often brutal English soldiers who made their careers waging war in France. Cooper retraces the entire course of Fastolf’s long life, putting special focus on his many campaigns. A vivid picture of the old soldier emerges and of the French wars in which he played such a prominent part. But the author also explores Fastolf’s legacy, his connection to the Paston family—famous for the Paston letters—and the use Shakespeare made of Fastolf’s name, career, and character when he created Sir John Falstaff.

Falstaff
Falstaff

Author: Harold Bloom

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2017-04-04

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 1501164155

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From Harold Bloom, one of the greatest Shakespeare scholars of our time comes “a timely reminder of the power and possibility of words [and] the last love letter to the shaping spirit of Bloom’s imagination” (front page, The New York Times Book Review) and an intimate, wise, deeply compelling portrait of Falstaff—Shakespeare’s greatest enduring and complex comedic characters. Falstaff is both a comic and tragic central protagonist in Shakespeare’s three Henry plays: Henry IV, Parts One and Two, and Henry V. He is companion to Prince Hal (the future Henry V), who loves him, goads, him, teases him, indulges his vast appetites, and commits all sorts of mischief with him—some innocent, some cruel. Falstaff can be lewd, funny, careless of others, a bad creditor, an unreliable friend, and in the end, devastatingly reckless in his presumption of loyalty from the new King. Award-winning author and esteemed professor Harold Bloom writes about Falstaff with the deepest compassion and sympathy and also with unerring wisdom. He uses the relationship between Falstaff and Hal to explore the devastation of severed bonds and the heartbreak of betrayal. Just as we encounter one type of Anna Karenina or Jay Gatsby when we are young adults and another when we are middle-aged, Bloom writes about his own shifting understanding of Falstaff over the course of his lifetime. Ultimately we come away with a deeper appreciation of this profoundly complex character, and this “poignant work” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) as a whole becomes an extraordinarily moving argument for literature as a path to and a measure of our humanity. Bloom is mesmerizing in the classroom, wrestling with the often tragic choices Shakespeare’s characters make. “In this first of five books about Shakespearean personalities, Bloom brings erudition and boundless enthusiasm” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) and his exhilarating Falstaff invites us to look at a character as a flawed human who might live in our world.