The Character of Falstaff in Henry IV Part One Szerzõ dezs Angol érettségi tétel The Character of Falstaff in Henry IV Part One The character of Falstaff was based upon a real historical personality, namely Sir John Oldcastle (c.1378-1417), High

was a lollard, and became a martyr of Protestantism after he was hanged and burnt as a heretic in 1417,even Foxe mentions him in his famous work "Actes and Monuments".(1) The resemblance between him and Falstaff is not very strong, in fact the only similarity is that he was a friend of the historical Prince Hal. The negative aspects of his character came from poems and chronicles written by anti-Wycliffites and Papists, who were hostile towards him. The most important fabricators of his disrepute as a coward were the poet Hoccleve and chroniclers from Walsingham to Polydore Vergil. In the sixteenth century Oldcastle's reputation was rehabilitated by Protestant writers like Bale, Halle an