Part 12 (1/2)

_Shakspeare_ your _Wincot_ ale hath ar so (by chance was found Sleeping) that there needed not many a word Tolines the writer promises to visit 'Wincot' (_ie_ Wilnecote) to drink

Such ale as _Shakspeare_ fancies Did put Kit Sly into such lordly trances

It is therefore probable that Shakespeare consciously invested the home of Kit Sly and of Kit's hostess with characteristics of Wilnecote as well as of the hamlet near Stratford

Wilmcote, the native place of Shakespeare's mother, is also said to have been popularly pronounced 'Wincot' A tradition which was first recorded by Capell as late as 1780 in his notes to the 'Ta of The Shrew' (p

26) is to the effect that Shakespeare often visited an inn at 'Wincot' to enjoy the society of a 'fool who belonged to a neighbouring mill,' and the Wincot of this story is, we are told, locally associated with the village of Wilmcote But the links that connect Shakespeare's tinker with Wilhter than those which connect him with Wincot and Wilnecote

The mention of Kit Sly's tavern comrades--

Stephen Sly and old John Naps of Greece, And Peter Turf and Henry Pimpernell--

was in all likelihood a reminiscence of contemporary Warwickshi+re life as literal as the naenuine Stephen Sly as in the dramatist's day a self-assertive citizen of Stratford; and 'Greece,' whence 'old John Naps' derived his cogno of Greet, a hamlet by Winchcombe in Gloucestershi+re, not far removed from Shakespeare's native town

'Henry IV'

In 1597 Shakespeare turned once lish history From Holinshed's 'Chronicle,' and from a valueless but very popular piece, 'The Famous Victories of Henry V,' which was repeatedly acted between 1588 and 1595, {167} he worked up with splendid energy two plays on the reign of Henry IV They form one continuous whole, but are known respectively as parts i and ii of 'Henry IV' The 'Second Part of Henry IV' is al of The Shrew'

in direct references to persons and districts fa scenes pass at the house of Justice Shallow in Gloucestershi+re, a county which touched the boundaries of Stratford (III

ii and V i) When, in the second of these scenes, the justice's factotum, Davy, asked his ainst Clement Perkes of the Hill,' the local references are unmistakable Woodmancote, where the family of Visor or Vizard has flourished since the sixteenth century, is still pronounced Woncot The adjoining Stinchcombe Hill (still familiarly known to natives as 'The Hill') was in the sixteenth century the home of the family of Perkes

Very precise too are the allusions to the region of the Cotswold Hills, which were easily accessible from Stratford 'Will Squele, a Cotswold man,' is noticed as one of Shallow's friends in youth (III ii 23); and when Shallow's servant Davy receives his master's instructions to sow 'the headland' 'with red wheat,' in the early autumn, there is an obvious reference to the custo 'red laricultural year

{168b}

The kingly hero of the two plays of 'Henry IV' had figured as a spirited young hed down by care and age With him are contrasted (in part i) his impetuous and ambitious subject Hotspur and (in both parts) his son and heir Prince Hal, whose boisterous disposition drives hi the haunters of taverns Hotspur is a vivid and fascinating portrait of a hot-headed soldier, courageous to the point of rashness, and sacrificing his life to his iaries, is endowed by the dramatist with far more self-control and common sense

Falstaff

On the first, as on every subsequent, production of 'Henry IV' thenor on his son, nor on Hotspur, but on the chief of Prince Hal's riotous coreat creation was questioned on a political or historical ground of doubtful relevance Shakespeare in both parts of 'Henry IV' originally named the chief of the prince's associates after Sir John Oldcastle, a character in the old play But Henry Brooke, eighth lord Cobham, who succeeded to the title early in 1597, and claimed descent from the historical Sir John Oldcastle, the Lollard leader, raised objection; and when the first part of the play was printed by the acting-company's authority in 1598 ('newly corrected' in 1599), Shakespeare bestowed on Prince Hal's tun-bellied follower the new and deathless name of Falstaff A trustworthy edition of the second part of 'Henry IV' also appeared with Falstaff's name substituted for that of Oldcastle in 1600 There the epilogue expressly denied that Falstaff had any characteristic in common with the martyr Oldcastle Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man But the substitution of the name 'Falstaff' did not pass without protest It hazily recalled Sir John Fastolf, an historical warrior who had already figured in 'Henry VI' and ner at one ti to traditional stage directions, {170} the prince and his companions in 'Henry IV' frequent the Boar's Head, Eastcheap Fuller in his 'Worthies,' first published in 1662, while expressing satisfaction that Shakespeare had 'put out' of the play Sir John Oldcastle, was eloquent in his avowal of regret that 'Sir John Fastolf' was 'put in,' on the ground that it was reat warrior's memory to make him a 'Thrasonical puff and e introduction and withdrawal of Oldcastle's name left a curious mark on literary history Humbler dra to profit by the attention drawn by Shakespeare to the historical Oldcastle, produced a poor draenuine history; and of two editions of 'Sir John Oldcastle' published in 1600, one printed for T[hoe as by Shakespeare

But it is not the historical traditions which are connected with Falstaff that give him his perennial attraction It is the personality that owes nothing to history hich Shakespeare's ience in sensual pleasures, his exuberant ed of offence by his colossal wit and jollity, while the contrast between his old age and his unreverend way of life supplies that tinge of hest nised the triu phrases, with the names of his foils, Justice Shallow and Silence, at once took root in popular speech Shakespeare's purely comic power culminated in Falstaff; he ure in literature

'Merry Wives of Windsor'

In all probability 'The Merry Wives of Windsor,' a co to farce, and unqualified by any pathetic interest, followed close upon 'Henry IV' In the epilogue to the 'Second Part of Henry IV' Shakespeare had written: 'If you be not too much cloyed with fat meat, our humble author will continue the story with Sir John in itwhere for anything I know Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already a' be killed with your hard opinions' Rowe asserts that 'Queen Elizabeth was so well pleased with that admirable character of Falstaff in the two parts of ”Henry IV” that she commanded him to continue it for one play more, and to show him in love' Dennis, in the dedication of 'The Comical Gallant' (1702), noted that the 'Merry Wives' ritten at the Queen's 'coer to see it acted that she commanded it to be finished in fourteen days, and was afterwards, as tradition tells us, very well pleased with the representation' In his 'Letters' (1721, p 232) Dennis reduces the period of co,' added Gildon, {172a} 'where all is so well contrived and carried on without the least confusion' The localisation of the scene at Windsor, and the complimentary references to Windsor Castle, corroborate the tradition that the comedy was prepared to meet a royal command An imperfect draft of the play was printed by Thomas Creede in 1602; {172b} the folio of 1623 first supplied a coested by an Italian novel A tale froured in the atorie' (1590), another Italian tale from the 'Pecorone' of Ser Giovanni Fiorentino (i 2), and a third romance, the Fishwife's tale of Brainford in the collection of stories called 'Westward for S episodes in the play Nowhere has Shakespeare so vividly reflected the bluff temper of contemporary middle-class society The presentment of the buoyant domestic life of an Elizabethan country town bears distinct iain, there are literal references to the neighbourhood of Stratford Justice Shallohose coat-of-ar of 'luces,' is thereby openly identified with Shakespeare's early foe, Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote