Login Register. Ask Experts Education Exam Questions. You must Sign In to post a response. Category: Exam Questions. In how many Shakespearean plays does Falstaff appear? Have you heard of Falstaff? Falstaff is a character found in most of the plays by Shakespeare. Find out more about this interesting character Falstaff from Shakespeare plays.
Hi, In the exam, we had a question asking the number of plays in which the character Falstaff appear. No Boys Play Here takes Falstaff as a figure for those left behind; those who have failed to find a foothold on the social ladder: specifically, men without salaries and homes; discarded men turning back into children. These are men ill-equipped to meet the demands of a society run through software updates and slick technologies.
The story of Falstaff resonates intensely in an era when chronic lack of food and shelter have become dire emergencies Credit: Alamy. As a child, growing up in a home without men, I often wondered where men, in particular, slept. On the seafront, it seemed, when I went looking, clutching a can of lager for warmth and good cheer. Men, as I understood them, were homeless and dispossessed because they had no means of growing up; no reliable forms of work, or social and cultural infrastructure to hold them in place.
In my reading of him, Falstaff is both rejected father figure and rejected child; in his relationship to others, he fluctuates between infant and old man and fails to find a foothold in any era; nor does he find a stable home. I see Falstaff still living with us today. In place of reliable state welfare, we seem to have returned to an era of charitable handouts: a culture of patrons, benefactors and donors, of volunteers. Similarly, Falstaff is also reliant on the capricious support of others.
Shakespeare never allows us to forget that he is in debt; he has next to no money in his purse. His status and reputation at the local tavern rely entirely on his association with Prince Hal and Hal's credit: Hal's purse. By the time we get to part two of Henry IV, the money and any chance of credit has run out.
My book follows Falstaff through the back alleys of a forgotten seaside town as he goes looking for places to sleep and take shelter. His only real currency is his capacity for words, for inventive wordplay, and for play of all sorts. But in the end, play is only a way of putting off the inevitable: Falstaff is out on his ear again: homeless, stateless, friendless, asking us to take pity on him. As a teenager, I did.
I recognised something in his need that resonated with my own need for unquestioning care. In an age of acute social divisions and increasing deprivation, Falstaff begs the question: how much do we and can we care? Love books? If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.
And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. The Shakespeare tragedy that truly speaks to us now. Share using Email. By Sally Bayley 22nd April Drunken knight John Falstaff is no-one's idea of a tragic hero. To Burgess, the Shakespearean essence which persists is the Falstaffian. Have a listen:. The manuscript held in the Anthony Burgess archive contains a draft of Act One with no clear indication of whether a second act survives or was even written.
Yet later in this same decade, Burgess would compose such a play. Lines and whole speeches are adapted out. Smaller additions by Burgess include explanations of perhaps obscure meanings to modern audiences.
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