Understanding Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor by Robert A. Albano - HTML preview

Falstaff as Buffoon: The Merry Wives of Windsor

In The Merry Wives of Windsor the character of Falstaff has moved into broad physical comedy or, perhaps more appropriately labeled, slapstick. Such physical comedy is hinted at in the earlier plays. For example, in 1 Henry IV, Poins steals Falstaff’s horse (II, ii); and the “fat-guts” (as Prince Hal calls him) must labor and wheeze on foot during the Gad’s Hill robbery exploit. But the physical comedy of the two Henry plays never comes anywhere close to approximate what occurs in the comedy with Falstaff in it. Quite apparently, Shakespeare decided to make a radical change in this Falstaff play to the extent that physical comedy dominates over the verbal. And the character of Falstaff himself becomes something more (or less, depending on one’s point of view): Falstaff becomes a physical clown. But the physical antics are not the only change in the character and are not what qualifies the rotund rogue for the new label of buffoon. Unlike the modern usage of word, where buffoon can signify either (1) a clown or (2) a person given to making coarse jokes (American Heritage Dictionary), during the Renaissance the term suggests a coarse or crude individual who adopts a vulgar or sinful style of living. As indicated earlier, Frye connects the Host of the Garter Inn to this type. However, the Host is such a minor character with very little development that this example does not contribute much to pinpointing the major characteristics of the buffoon. To complicate matters, there are a number of variations to this type of comic