9 ARCHBISHOP of York, Richard Scrope (or Scroope, as spelled in Q and F; c. 1350–1405), third son of Baron Scrope of Masham in the north and a distinguished canon lawyer, was appointed to head the commission receiving Richard II’s ‘voluntary’ abdication in 1399. Though at first a loyal subject of Henry IV, he may have quietly supported the Percy rebellion in 1403. His manifesto of 1405, which incited the people of York to rise up against the King, brought his sympathy with the Percys into the open: in it, he complained of the King’s abuse of the Church and clergy, excessive taxation, misappropriation of revenue and unfair treatment of members of the nobility. Shakespeare seems also to imply a private motive for Scrope’s insurgency by erroneously reporting him to be the brother of William Scrope, Earl of Wiltshire, whom Bolingbroke had beheaded for treason in 1399 (see 1H4 1.3.265–6); in fact the Earl was only the Archbishop’s cousin. Whatever his motivation, as leader of the Prelate’s Rebellion, Scrope was presumably relying on the military backing of Northumberland: without it, the eight or nine thousand followers who rallied behind him scarcely constituted a credible army. Thus incapable of resisting the forces led by Westmorland and Prince John, Scrope may have surrendered unconditionally at Gaultree Forest on 29 May, or else been deceived, as chroniclers report, into thinking that his grievances would be addressed. But the King was intent on making an example of the treasonous archbishop, so Scrope, like his fellow insurgents, was beheaded – the first English prelate to be condemned to death by due process of law.

  10 MOWBRAY, Thomas (1385–1405), 2nd Earl of Nottingham, was the eldest son of Thomas Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk and Henry Bolingbroke’s antagonist who died in exile in 1399 and whom, according to Shallow (3.2.24–6), young Falstaff served as page. He did not succeed to his father’s dukedom; nor, although the Mowbrays claimed to be hereditary Marshals of England, did he succeed his father as Marshal. Instead, Henry IV appointed the Earl of Westmorland to that office for life, though young Mowbray was allowed to style himself ‘Earl Marshal’ as a courtesy. Why he joined the Prelate’s Rebellion is uncertain. Though he petitioned the King to recover his father’s estates, Henry was slow to grant him his inheritance, having earlier dispersed some of those lands to his own followers. A more likely cause of Mowbray’s decision to join the northern rebels was resentment that the King had withheld the marshalcy from him. When the rebellion failed, Mowbray was imprisoned with Archbishop Scrope at Pontefract and put to death as a traitor.

  11 HASTINGS The person who joined the Prelate’s Rebellion was not Lord Hastings, as Holinshed reports (3.529), but Sir Ralph Hastings. It is unclear whether his life was spared when the rebels dispersed, or whether, like the others, he was beheaded.

  12 LORD BARDOLPH Thomas, 5th Baron Bardolf, Lord of Wormegay and elsewhere, was first summoned to parliament in 1390 and presumably remained loyal to the crown until 1405, when he joined Northumberland in his rebellion against Henry IV. He fled with Northumberland to Scotland, thereafter to Wales and then to France. He and Northumberland led troops in an invasion of England from Scotland in 1408 and suffered defeat in the Battle of Bramham Moor, where Northumberland was slain. Holinshed reports that Lord Bardolph ‘was taken, but sore wounded, so that he shortlie after died of the hurts’ (3. 534). His body, subjected to the traitor’s fate, was quartered and decapitated.

  13 TRAVERS There is no mention of such a character in Holinshed or other chroniclers. Shakespeare seems to have invented him for this play.

  14 MORTON like Travers, a character apparently invented by Shakespeare

  15 Sir John COLLEVILE A knight by the name of Collevile (also spelled ‘Colevile’ in QF) is not mentioned in Holinshed’s account of the rebels’ defeat at Gaultree Forest, but is included in a list of conspirators beheaded at Durham. If, however, that list was not Shakespeare’s source for this character, he may have borrowed the name from a ‘Sir John Colvyl, Knight’ who joined Henry V on his French expedition in 1415, or from ‘Sir John Colvill’ – perhaps the same person – who was Governor of Wisbech Castle in 1416.

  16 WARWICK Richard Beauchamp (1382 – 1439), 13th Earl of Warwick, was a godson of Richard II and Richard Scrope (see 9n.). His family suffered in the last years of Richard’s reign, when the Mowbrays were given disputed land claimed by the earls of Warwick, and was saved by the accession of Henry IV, who knighted young Beauchamp at his coronation in 1399. Beauchamp served ably in the Welsh campaign against Owen Glendower before receiving his father’s title and lands in 1403, and fought for the King at the Battle of Shrewsbury. Despite his relationship with Archbishop Scrope, he assisted with his arrest and trial in 1405. During the Welsh campaigns he became a strong ally of the Prince of Wales, and his appointment to the royal Council in 1410 coincided with the Prince’s rise to power on the Council. When the King recovered power for himself in 1411, Warwick was removed from the Council along with the Prince. Shakespeare mistakenly has the King refer to Warwick as ‘cousin Neville’ at 3.1.66, perhaps confusing Warwick’s family name with that of the Earl of Westmorland (see 17n.), or possibly taking the name from his son-in-law Richard Nevill, who became Earl of Warwick, in his wife’s right, during the reign of Henry VI.

  17 WESTMORLAND Ralph Neville (c. 1364–1425), 1st Earl of Westmorland and scion of a northern family as powerful as the Percys, was the first lord to offer support to the banished Henry Bolingbroke, his brother-in-law, when he returned from France to claim his patrimony. As a reward, on his coronation day Henry created him Marshal of England for life. Henry’s grant of land in southern Scotland to Northumberland, however, limited Westmorland’s influence in the north and may have fed a growing rivalry between them. Warwick used the Percys’ rebellion in 1403 as an opportunity to break that family’s hold on the north. After the Battle of Shrewsbury, Westmorland intercepted Northumberland’s march south with reinforcements, forced him back to Warkworth and urged the King to take the Percy castles by force. Though the King pardoned Northumberland in 1404 and affected a reconciliation between the two rival lords, it was shortlived. In 1405, Northumberland led a raid on a castle where he knew Westmorland to be staying, with the intention of capturing him; but Westmorland was forewarned of the raid and escaped. Northumberland fled to Scotland, and Westmorland was left to quash the Prelate’s Rebellion, first by defeating re-tainers of Percy and Mowbray near Thirsk, and then by marching towards York, where he intercepted the Archbishop’s forces and used guile to get the rebel leaders to lay down their arms. Westmorland was rewarded for his loyalty to the King with vast swaths of Percy lands. The QF spelling ‘Westmerland’ no doubt indicates its pronunciation, with emphasis falling on the first syllable.

  18 Surrey Thomas Fitzalan (1381–1415), 5th Earl of Arundel and 10th Earl of Surrey, joined Bolingbroke in exile in Paris and accompanied him on his return to England. Knighted by Henry IV in 1399 and restored to the title and estates of his father, who had been executed by Richard II in 1397, he for years fought to maintain the King’s authority in the Welsh marches, where he was allied with the Prince of Wales, the Earl of Warwick, and others. In 1405 he was sent north to suppress the Prelate’s Rebellion, where he and Thomas Beaufort were invested with authority to pass a judgement of execution on the Archbishop of York. His subsequent fortunes were increasingly attached to those of Prince Harry. After the Prince was dismissed from the royal Council, Surrey held no further office, military or political, until Henry V acceded to the throne. Holinshed erroneously records the death of ‘Thomas Beauford earle of Surrie’ in 1410 (3.536). On Surrey’s status as a mute character in the play, see 3.1.31.1n.

  19 Sir John Blunt A mute character in the retinue of Prince John at Gaultree, Blunt may have been the son of Sir Walter Blount, a loyal Lancastrian who was killed fighting for the King at Shrewsbury. John was made a Knight of the Garter and lost his life at the siege of Rouen in 1418. See 3.1.31.1n.

  20 GOWER a name Shakespeare uses for a captain in H5 and again for the Chorus in Per. Gower here figures as a messenger for the Lord Chief Justice. Holinshed, in his account of the reign of Henry IV, devotes a paragraph to the poet John Gower (3.541), possibly inspiring Shakespeare to use the name.

  21 HARCOURT perhaps a name Shakespeare chose at random. The Harcourt (de Harcourt) family had been prominent gentry in the central midlands since the Norman invasion. A Sir Thomas Harcourt was Sheriff of Berkshire in 1407.

  22 Lord Chief JUSTICE Sir William Gascoigne (c. 1350–1419), said to have studied at Cambridge and the Inner Temple, was one of Richard II’s sergeants-at-law during the 1380s, and in the 1390s was retained by Bolingbroke, served as chief justice of the Lancaster palatinate, and became attorney to Bolingbroke during his banishment. Henry IV named Gascoigne Chief Justice of the King’s Bench in 1400; in 1403 he was commissioned to raise forces against the Earl of Northumberland and was made justice of assize for the northern circuit, including Northumberland and Yorkshire where the Percys were plotting rebellion; in 1405 he was assigned to receive the submission of, and to fine, the Earl’s confederates. Some chronicles report, though without substantiation, that Henry assigned Gascoigne to try Archbishop Scrope for treason, but that when Henry insisted that a death sentence be passed, Gascoigne refused, arguing that the laws of the kingdom gave no secular court the right to adjudge a bishop to death. Whether true or not, the story attests to Gascoigne’s reputation for moral probity and judicial independence. The most famous story circulated about him involved his imprisoning the Prince of Wales for attempting to rescue one of his favourites from the bar of the King’s Bench: see pp. 129–30 for an account of variations in the legend. Shakespeare employs this story to dramatize the reformation of the Prince, who, now wearing the crown, praises the Chief Justice for committing him into the hands of justice and asks him to remain in office to wield Th’unstained sword and to ‘be as a father to my youth’ (5.2.113, 117). In fact, however, Henry V did not renew Gascoigne’s appointment as Chief Justice, but replaced him with William Hankeford only a week after his accession.

  24 POINS A bosom friend of Prince Harry in both parts of H4, Ned Poins vows that the ‘worst that they can say of me is that I am a second brother’ (2.2.63–4), suggesting that he is a gentleman who, as a younger son, will inherit little money and no estate, but is nonetheless worthy to keep company with the Prince. Shakespeare may have derived his name from a noble Gloucestershire family named Poyntz dating back to the Norman conquest (when the name was Fitzpons), whose barons played an influential role in the court of Edward I and of subsequent kings, including Henry VIII.

  25 FALSTAFF An impecunious knight whose situation to a degree mirrors that of other veterans in the reign of Elizabeth, but whose ‘brave deeds’ at Shrewsbury have earned him a crown pension, Sir John Falstaff in 1H4 was originally named Sir John Oldcastle, after a Protestant martyr who was burned in 1417 by order of his friend Henry V. The name was changed prior to the printing of quarto editions following a protest made after the play was performed, probably by the 10th Lord Cobham, the Lord Chamberlain and a collateral descendant of Oldcastle. See pp. 134–42 for an account of this controversy and residual references to Oldcastle in 2H4. The name Shakespeare substituted, Falstaff, may have derived from Sir John Fastolf, a nobleman who appears in 1H6 as a cowardly foil to Sir John Talbot, though in life he was honoured for his service in the French wars: the SP ‘Fast.’ occurs twice in Q0 of 1H4. However, in keeping with other charactonyms in 2H4 such as Shallow and Silence, Falstaff’s name may have been intended to suggest his traits of cowardice and deception in battle (false-staff) or his ultimate rejection by Henry V (fall-staff).

  26 BARDOLPH A droll, red-faced alcoholic, and manservant to Falstaff, whom as his corrupt ‘corporal’ he helps to recruit soldiers in Gloucestershire, Bardolph is identified by Shakespeare as the man over whose arraignment for felony the Prince once struck the Lord Chief Justice (1.2.56 – 7). Called Bardoll or Bardol in quarto editions of 1H4, his name in 2H4 may have shifted to a variant form owing to the proximate appearance of Lord Bardolph as Northumberland’s chief confederate. This form of his name remained consistent in 2H4, H5 and MW, as well as F 1H4. Shakespeare had originally designated the character as Russell (the family name of the Earls of Bedford), apparently changing it when he changed Oldcastle to Falstaff, and for the same reason, to avoid giving offence to a noble family. Nevertheless, it is curious that the new name Shakespeare chose was that of Sir Reginald Cobham’s wife, Bardolf (Chambers, Shakespeare, 1.25).

  27 PISTOL A scurrilous braggart and a familiar of Doll Tearsheet, the ancient Pistol – ancient being military rank equivalent to ensign, though Falstaff later addresses him as his lieutenant (5.5.88) – is repeatedly called a ‘swaggerer’, someone who quarrels, boasts, bullies, and is especially violent towards women. His idiom of mock-heroics identifies him as a fraud, and as such he holds a privileged place in Falstaff’s entourage. Most obviously identified with a temperamental new 16th-century weapon likely to go off without warning, Pistol’s name may also derive from the Italian pistolfo, translated by Florio in 1611 as ‘a roguing beggar, a cantler, an vpright man that liueth by cosenage’ (see 2.4.69n).

  28 PETO A companion of the Prince who plays a significant role in 1H4 but appears in this play only to bring a message to him in the tavern, Peto, like Poins, seems to be well born. Peto was the name of a Warwickshire family, and William Peto, a clergyman in the reigns of Henry VIII and Mary, was elected Cardinal in 1557. In 1H4 the character seems originally to have been called Harvey, the family name of the third husband of the Earl of Southampton’s mother, but Shakespeare changed the name to Peto, probably at the time he altered Falstaff’s and Bardolph’s original names.

  29 PAGE to Falstaff A page in the middle ages was a young male servant in service to a nobleman, often acting as his messenger, or as an apprentice squire to a knight. Falstaff is reported by Justice Shallow to have been page to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk (3.2.24–6). Typically well born himself, the boy at about age seven would join a noble household as a personal servant, and for the next seven years would receive training in military conduct, dress and protocols. Falstaff’s Page, of course, would have learned very different manners of conduct and dress, as the Prince observes at 2.2.67–9. It is likely that Shakespeare’s company at this time had a small boy actor with considerable comic talent.

  30 SHALLOW A gentleman some years older than Falstaff, whom he remembers as a page when he himself was a student at Clement’s Inn, and therefore in his 70s, Robert Shallow serves as a justice of the peace in Gloucestershire. As such, he is responsible for mustering local men for service in the King’s wars. Though Shallow claims to be poor, his farm, as Falstaff observes, is rich in land and beefs (3.2.326). His name, of course, reveals his lack of depth and his gullibility in relation to others who wish to use him for their own purposes.

  31 SILENCE Shallow’s yoke-fellow of equity, Silence is another justice of the peace in Gloucestershire, a cousin to Shallow (3.2.4–5), and, as his name suggests, a man of few words. Though often played to comic effect as old and decrepit, Silence has a son at Oxford (to my cost, 12) and thus is probably younger than Shallow.

  32 DAVY In Falstaff’s words, Davy is Shallow’s serving-man and … husband (5.3.11), i.e. the person who manages the farm and its resources. A pragmatist, Davy is not above manipulating Justice Shallow for his own ends, as when he gets him to fix a case for an arrant knave who is his friend (5.1.39).

  33 FANG an officer of the law, or constable, whose name is indicative of his function: to seize or apprehend offenders

  34 SNARE A yeoman (2.1.3), traditional second to a constable, whose name means to capture or catch by entangling, Snare may have been played by a cadaverously thin actor in Shakespeare’s company, John Sincklo, who doubled as the Beadle and possibly as Simon Shadow.

  35 MOULDY One of the two ablest recruits from whom Falstaff is to choose, Ralph Mouldy is a farmer prosperous enough to bribe his way out of service. His name, suggestive of his occupation, refers to soft, crumbly earth suitable for growing plants.

  36 SHADOW a recruit whose name suggests emaciation, and therefore a role possibly played by John Sincklo. Simon Shadow’s name also invokes, in Falstaff’s punning confession, the corrupt practice by some captains of filling their muster books with the names of dead or fictitious men, called ‘shadows’, whose earnings they would pocket for themselves as ‘dead pay’.

  37 WART Possibly named for a Thomas Warter of Gloucestershire (see 3.2.137n.), Thomas Wart is ridiculed for his ragged appearance, lice-infested clothing, small stature and unsuitability for military service. Yet Falstaff uses these characteristics to justify selecting him as someone who could handle a light musket (caliver) more dexterously than the more obviously fit recruits.

  38 FEEBLE As a women’s tailor, Francis Feeble is mocked with the stereotype of effeminacy and sexual deviance, yet he proves to be the most courageously patriotic of all the recruits.