T. R. Burdowski
Dr. Chip Rogers
English 4223.001
February 13, 2007

Research Presentation: Bente A. Viedboek’s “Falstaff the Clown in 1 Henry IV”

Viedboek, Bente A. “Falstaff the Clown in 1 Henry IV.”  Readings on the Histories of William Shakespeare.  Ed. by Clarice Swisher.  San Diego: Greenhaven, 1998.  105-14.

Viedboek reminds readers that Falstaff had no historical basis in the life of the actual Prince Henry and examines the different dramatic functions of this much-beloved character in each of his major scenes in 1 Henry IV.  Viedboek contends that Shakespeare created Falstaff to serve the primary purposes of providing contrast with Hotspur, which helps to clarify and develop Hal’s character, and giving the audience a more detached and less intensely involved view of the historical events in the play.  In Viedboek’s view Hotspur and Falstaff present extremes of behavior akin to heaven and hell, between which Hal vacillates throughout the play until his character is fully developed at the play’s end.  Regarding the Gad’s Hill robbery scene, Viedboek notes that Falstaff makes remarks directly to the audience, which I had not noticed previously, and she emphasizes that he never admits being bested by Hal in their witty banter after the foiled robbery but emerges from the exchange with his confidence and good humor completely intact, as a sort of comic “Hercules and lion both” (109).  After commenting on Falstaff’s adroit maneuvering to express views favorable to himself in both roles of prince and king when he and Hal rehearse for Hal’s interview with his father the next day, Viedboek notes that the high comedy of this scene acts as an important counterbalance to the great seriousness of the actual father-son conversation that follows in Act 3, Scene 2.  Of Falstaff’s famous comments on honor during the battle and of his playing dead on the field after his “mock battle” with Douglas, Viedboek says that Falstaff provides the audience with much-needed relief to counter the unendurably great tension that, without comic relief, would attend the struggle between Hotspur and Hal as it reaches its climax in Hotspur’s death.  Just as Falstaff and Hotspur follow parallel tracks as opposing influences on Hal, they are parallel again, Viedboek notes, as Falstaff lies feigning death on the battlefield right beside the actually dead Hotspur.  Viedboek’s fundamental thesis ultimately is that Falstaff is important not only because he offers the audience laughs, but because he keeps us from identifying too closely with Hotspur as a serious rival to Hal and gives us a much-needed, more distanced perspective on the high seriousness of the historical matters in the play.  An interesting final note is Viedboek’s pointing out how Falstaff is never allowed to undermine Hal’s credibility as the royal heir: Falstaff is not as intimately close to Hal really even as Poins.            

This article makes a number of worthwhile points about Falstaff’s most basic dramatic functions in the play, and before reading it I had not contemplated so deeply his role as foil to Hotspur, thinking he is more usually seen as a foil or counterpoint to the king since Falstaff is a kind of father-figure to Hal in the “carousing” side of his life.  I also think Viedboek’s comments on Falstaff’s speaking directly to the audience in many places may be worth closer study next time I read this play (“like, for my paper, you know?” J ).  The point on Falstaff’s keeping the audience from getting too intensely involved with the historical characters is a good one: this play would be almost unbearably tense without such hearty comic relief as we find in Falstaff.  Maybe it’s just my own overly critical view of Falstaff’s shameful lack of honor, which seems increasingly less funny as the play advances, but I think this article may not do full justice to the negative side of Falstaff’s character in the end.  To sum up, the article is highly readable and makes basic if somewhat obvious points that underscore a number of the play’s most important themes on both the historical level and the personal level of Hal’s maturation.