Oldcastle was an ancestor of the Barons Cobham, an august family on the friendliest terms with the Queen Elizabeth I. A vigorous complaint was issued.
Part I was likely first put on the stage in 1593-4. It was so popular that a second part was written and produced shortly thereafter. The 1600 first quarto of the second part also named the character Falstaff and included an epilogue stating “Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man” by way of apology. Clearly the name change had been accomplished before the publication of the 1598 quarto.
Henry IV, part 1, is famous for the tag ends left here and there in the text still referring to Oldcastle. Basically, the minimum change had been made: the name Falstaff had been inserted for that of Oldcastle in performance and print. Thus, Sir John Oldcastle became Sir John Falstaff. I excerpt the very likely reason for the name Falstaff (originally Folstolf) from my book Edward de Vere's Retainer Thomas Churchyard: the Man Who Was Falstaff (2017) below. Interestingly, Thomas Churchyard had been the model for Pistoll in the much earlier The Cronicle History of Henry the fift. Apparently, Pistoll was sufficiently popular that Shakespeare featured Churchyard in the role of Oldcastle / Falstaff in the later work and reduced Pistoll to a supporting role.
102. It has commonly been asserted that the name Falstaff came from the historical figure Sir John Fastolf,1 a well-known knight who served under Henry V and VI. There was even a time during Fastolf’s life when he was accused of having run from danger. His temporary disgrace in the eyes of his enemies forms a small sub-plot in the first part of the plays on Henry VI. That play was attributed to Shakespeare by those who selected the plays of the First Folio (but few scholars have seconded the attribution2). Surely, it is said, he is the source of Sir John Falstaff.
103. To point out to those by whom “it is said” that Fastolf was some 19 years of age when Prince Henry ascended to the throne while our man is repeatedly described as being an “old” soldier would probably be to no avail. Playwrights at the time were not exact historians as we ourselves have pointed out. To point out that his sole accusation of cowardice was for fleeing the field of a battle which had already been lost is also likely to be of no avail. He retreated rather than allow himself to be captured by the forces of Joan of Arc together with the rest of an English army panicked beyond any leader’s ability to rally them.
104. The character of Falstaff, in 1 Henry IV, is called upon by the Prince to act the part of his father the King. The Prince will play himself and have a little fun. What, he wants to know, does the old soldier imagine their next conversation will be like? Unable, as always, to resist self-advertisement, Sir John has the King bring him up for special praise in the conversation:
Fal. …And yet there is a virtuous man whom I have often noted in thy company, but I know not his name.
Prince. What manner of man, an it like your Majesty?
Fal. A goodly portly man, i'faith, and a corpulent; of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye, and a most noble carriage; and, as I think, his age some fifty, or, by'r Lady, inclining to threescore; and now I remember me, his name is Falstaff: if that man should be lewdly given, he deceiveth me; for, Harry, I see virtue in his looks.3
Again, Churchyard did not likely know his precise age. Few commoners did in those days. Just how precisely the Earl of Oxford knew the old retainer’s best guess cannot be said. But at the time of the actual robbery on Gads Hill he would have been about 53 years of age, or, to the Earl’s eye, “some fifty, or, by'r Lady, inclining to threescore”.
105. But there is much more that argues against the historical Fastolfe. He married early into wealth and was awarded an array of lands, under Henry V and VI, throughout his life. By the time he was 50 — well after Henry V had died — he had long been wealthy, cleared of the earlier accusation of cowardice, and possessed of extensive lands in England and France.
106. In the words of the preeminent Shakespeare scholar, J. O. Halliwell:
There is not, in fact, any ground for believing that the characters of Fastolf and Falstaff have any connexion whatever with each other. I much doubt whether Shakespeare even had the former in his memory, when he changed the name, as I shall afterwards show, of Oldcastle to Falstaff; and I think it extremely probable that the latter name might have been inserted merely for the purpose of marking one of the principal traits in his character.
Yet we find historians and journalists constantly giving countenance to this vulgar error, and Fastolf is mentioned as the prototype of Falstaff with as much positiveness as though he were an actual original of a genuine historical character.4
The only characteristic the two share is a close similarity in the spelling of their names.
107. Halliwell is also one of the many historically preeminent Shakespeare scholars who have agreed that 1 Henry VI5 includes only tiny number of lines from the hand of Shakespeare (the brief sub-plot of Fastolf not being among them) if it includes any lines at all.6 This remains the opinion of nearly all scholars today. Regardless, no meaningful scholar has failed to recognize that the Fastolf who briefly appears in 1 Henry VI is not remotely the same character as the Falstaff of the Henry IV plays.
108. There is another possible source for the name Falstaff, as I have pointed out in my Edward de Vere was Shakespeare.7 The likeliest source of the old knight’s surname was Edmond Folstolf, a pikeman retainer entered at the head of the muster-list of the Earl of Oxford for the battle of Agincourt. That he would inherit his predecessor’s knighthood and Christian name becomes all part of the spoof.
1 Johnson, Samuel, 6. ‘Mr. Pope has taken notice, “That Falstaff is here introduced again [in 1 Henry VI], who was dead in Henry V. The occasion whereof is, that this play was written before Henry IV. or Henry V.” But Sir John Fastolfe (for so he is called) was a lieutenant general, deputy regent to the duke of Bedford in Normandy, and a knight of the garter; and not the comick character afterwards introduced by our author. THEOBALD.’
2 Halliwell, James Orchard. On The Character of Sir John Falstaff. London: William Pickering, 1841. 13. ‘…few now would be guilty of ascribing that “ drum and trumpet” thing, called the “ First Part of Henry VI.,” to his pen,…’
3 1 Henry IV, II.iv.
4 Halliwell, 13-14.
5 There are three Henry VI plays. The common shorthand title of the first is 1 Henry VI.
6 see fn 39 above.
7 Purdy, Gilbert Wesley. Edward de Vere was Shakespeare. 159. “Scholars have suspected that the new name came from Sir John Fastolf, yet another man of historical standing and a wealthy soldier (who missed the battle of Agincourt, it turns out). But among the muster-list of soldiers provided by Richard De Vere, the 11th Earl of Oxford, toward the invasion of France, was one Edmond Folstolf, a man conveniently of no pedigree or fame.”
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
Shakespeare CSI: Sir Thomas More, Hand-D. April 22, 2023. “What a glory to have an actual hand-written manuscript from the greatest English writer of all time!”
Edward de Vere Birthday Backgrounder: April 12 (2023). April 7, 2023. "Edward De Vere was born April 12th, in the year 1550, at Hedingham Castle, in Essex, to John De Vere, the 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife Margery De Vere (née Golding)."
Edward de Vere in the Lives of his Daughters. February 27, 2023. "At least they take some comfort from their belief that De Vere had no demonstrable relationship with his daughter, the Countess of Montgomery, Susan de Vere."
- Shakespeare’s Character Names: Shylock, Ophelia, etc. July 13, 2021. “The name Ophelia was, by all indications, quite rare in the 16th century.”
A 1572 Oxford Letter and the Player’s Speech in Hamlet. August 11, 2020. “The player’s speech has been a source of consternation among Shakespeare scholars for above 200 years. Why was Aeneas’ tale chosen as the subject?”
- Check out the Shakespeare Authorship Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the Letters Index: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
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