Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Looking Like a Child – or – Titus: The Comedy
- Comedy and Epyllion in Post-Reformation England
- (Peter) Quince: Love Potions, Carpenter’s Coigns and Athenian Weddings
- ‘When Everything Seems Double’: Peter Quince, the other Playwright in A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Cultural Materialism and Intertextuality: The Limits of Queer Reading in A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Two Noble Kinsmen
- As You Liken It: Simile in the Wilderness
- Infinite Jest: The Comedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
- Othello and the End of Comedy
- Shakespeare as a Joke: The English Comic Tradition, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Amateur Performance
- Falstaff’s Belly, Bertie’s Kilt, Rosalind’s Legs: Shakespeare and the Victorian Prince
- The Sixth Act: Shakespeare after Joyce
- The Return of Prospero’s Wife: Mother Figures in The Tempest’s Afterlife
- Directing Shakespeare’s Comedies: In Conversation with Peter Holland
- ‘To Show our Simple Skill’: Scripts and Performances in Shakespearian Comedy
- John Shakespeare’s ‘Spiritual Testament’: A Reappraisal
- Shakespeare as a Force for Good
- Timon of Athens and Jacobean Politics
- Man, Woman and Beast in Timon’s Athens
- Rough Magic: Northern Broadsides at Work at Play
- Shakespeare Performances in England, 2002
- Professional Shakespeare Productions in the British Isles January–December 2001
- The Year's Contributions to Shakespearian Study 1 Critical Studies
- 2 Shakespeare’s Life, Times and Stage
- 3 Editions and Textual Studies
- Books Received
- Index
Falstaff’s Belly, Bertie’s Kilt, Rosalind’s Legs: Shakespeare and the Victorian Prince
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2007
- Frontmatter
- Looking Like a Child – or – Titus: The Comedy
- Comedy and Epyllion in Post-Reformation England
- (Peter) Quince: Love Potions, Carpenter’s Coigns and Athenian Weddings
- ‘When Everything Seems Double’: Peter Quince, the other Playwright in A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Cultural Materialism and Intertextuality: The Limits of Queer Reading in A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Two Noble Kinsmen
- As You Liken It: Simile in the Wilderness
- Infinite Jest: The Comedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
- Othello and the End of Comedy
- Shakespeare as a Joke: The English Comic Tradition, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Amateur Performance
- Falstaff’s Belly, Bertie’s Kilt, Rosalind’s Legs: Shakespeare and the Victorian Prince
- The Sixth Act: Shakespeare after Joyce
- The Return of Prospero’s Wife: Mother Figures in The Tempest’s Afterlife
- Directing Shakespeare’s Comedies: In Conversation with Peter Holland
- ‘To Show our Simple Skill’: Scripts and Performances in Shakespearian Comedy
- John Shakespeare’s ‘Spiritual Testament’: A Reappraisal
- Shakespeare as a Force for Good
- Timon of Athens and Jacobean Politics
- Man, Woman and Beast in Timon’s Athens
- Rough Magic: Northern Broadsides at Work at Play
- Shakespeare Performances in England, 2002
- Professional Shakespeare Productions in the British Isles January–December 2001
- The Year's Contributions to Shakespearian Study 1 Critical Studies
- 2 Shakespeare’s Life, Times and Stage
- 3 Editions and Textual Studies
- Books Received
- Index
Summary
We can all see ourselves in Shakespeare. But if you were the Prince of Wales you’d be bound to take a particular interest in Hal – and therefore in Falstaff. Imagine therefore that you’re Albert Edward Prince of Wales, familiarly known as Bertie, that you’re eleven years old, that it’s the Christmas holidays of 1852, that Charles Kean and his troupe are giving a command performance of Henry IV, Part I at Windsor Castle for your mum and the rest of the family. And that Falstaff makes you laugh. Many years later the actor playing Prince Hal will recall your reaction to ‘the scene where Falstaff boasts of his bravery with his shield and buckler’. Like this:
The Royal heir to the throne of England became so engrossed with the comicality of the scene (admirably played by Bartley) that he was carried away completely. He wore a tartan dress, and as tears of laughter rolled down his cheeks in his ecstasy, he rolled up his tartan and at the same time rubbed his knees with great gusto. His sister, the Princess Royal, saw with horror the innocent impropriety, and never shall I forget her terrified glance round the room. However, finding that all were intent upon the scene, she gave one vigorous tug at the tartan, which restored propriety and brought the happy boy to a sense of the situation.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Shakespeare SurveyAn Annual Survey of Shakespeare Studies and Production, pp. 126 - 136Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003
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