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Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare. In the two ''Henry IV'' plays, he is a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V. In ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'', he is the buffoonish suitor of two married women. Though primarily a comic figure, Falstaff still embodies a kind of depth common to Shakespeare's major characters. A fat, vain, boastful, and cowardly knight, he spends most of his time drinking at the Boar's Head Inn with petty criminals, living on stolen or borrowed money. Falstaff leads the apparently wayward Prince Hal into trouble, and is ultimately repudiated after Hal becomes king. In Act II, Scene III of ''Henry V'', his death is described by Mistress Quickly in terms that reference Plato's description of the death of Socrates. Falstaff has since appeared in other media, notably in operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Otto Nicolai. The operas focus on his role in ''The Merry Wives of Windsor''. ==Appearances== He appears in the following plays: * ''Henry IV, Part 1'' * ''Henry IV, Part 2'' * ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' His death is mentioned in ''Henry V'' but he has no lines, nor is it directed that he appear on stage. However, many stage and film adaptations have seen it necessary to include Falstaff for the insight he provides into King Henry V's character. The most notable examples in cinema are Laurence Olivier's 1944 version and Kenneth Branagh's 1989 film, both of which draw additional material from the ''Henry IV'' plays. The character is known to have been very popular with audiences at the time, and for many years afterwards. According to Leonard Digges, writing shortly after Shakespeare's death, while many plays could not get good audiences, "but let Falstaff come, Hal, Poins and the rest, you scarce shall have a room".〔Birch, Dinah (ed), ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'', Oxford University Press, 2009, p.473.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Falstaff」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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