In preparing for my Henry V lectures next week (email the address above, or see the January 5, 2011 post for more information), I've been re-viewing both Branagh's and Olivier's film versions, and I'll be writing a post comparing and contrasting the two within a few days. Today, I'd like to mention a character from the Second Part of Henry IV that keeps entering my mind, Justice Robert Shallow, and in particular the way Shakespeare brilliantly uses him as an alter ego to Falstaff. The latter treats him as a rube throughout, and does little but try to think of ways that he can bilk him and his position out of money. Falstaff's self-confidence and sense of superiority rest largely on his relationship with Prince Hal, of course, and it's an astonishing turnabout for the character as he becomes little more than Shallow, an insignificant man living in the past, by the end. And the comments that Falstaff had made regarding Shallow and his servants (in 5.1) take on an astonishing irony:

They, by observing of him, do bear

like foolish justices: he, by conversing with them, is turned

into a justice-like serving-man. Their spirits are so married

in conjunction with the participation of society that they flock

together in consent, like so many wild geese. If I had a suit

to Master Shallow, I would humour his men with the imputation of

being near their master; if to his men, I would curry with

Shallow that no man could better command his servants. It is

certain that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is

caught as men take diseases, one of another; therefore let men take

heed of their company.