Falstaff is one of the best-known characters in the plays of the English playwright William Shakespeare and one of the greatest comic characters in world drama. Falstaff is a dominant figure in Shakespeare’s history plays Henry IV, Part I, and Henry IV, Part II. Falstaff also is a major figure in Shakespeare’s comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor. His death is reported in the history play Henry V.
Falstaff is fat and self-indulgent. He is a liar, coward, and braggart. However, his quick wit and exuberant love of life make him an irresistible character. In the history plays, Falstaff spends much time at the Boar’s Head Inn, where he presides over a group of rascals including Bardolph, Pistol, Poins, Nym, and Peto. He is also the mentor of Prince Hal, the heir to the English throne. In a famous scene at the end of the second Henry play, Hal, newly crowned as King Henry V, brutally rejects Falstaff as a bad influence. Falstaff is a lesser personality in The Merry Wives of Windsor, where he appears as a buffoon without the ready wit of the man in the history plays.
Shakespeare probably based Falstaff on Sir John Oldcastle, a friend of Henry V. The name was taken from Sir John Fastolf, an English knight who died in 1459.
