Friday, July 17, 2009

Falstaff: If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked! If to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is damned: if to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine are to be loved. No, my good lord; banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins; but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant, being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff, banish not him thy Harry's company, banish not him thy Harry's company: banish plump Jack, and banish all the world!

William Shakespeare, Henry IV, II, iv




I have to admit here ignorance on all things Falstaff. I have never seen or read Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 1 or 2 so I know nothing about Falstaff from those quarters. But I have read Harold Bloom's Shakespeare - The Invention of the Human . It would seem that the time has come for me to correct this large vacant spot in my brain since Harold Bloom's favourite Shakespeare character happens to be Falstaff. And my Rebecca has fallen in love with the English Rose by that name. I obtained one for my garden this year but I overlooked buying one for Rebecca. I am trying to make amends in the best way I can. Tomorrow Rebecca and I will be going to Bard on the Beach to see The Comedy of Errors. This will be Rebecca's first Shakespeare play. I am all excited and I hope that all the action under that tent and the real farce that this play is will serve as an entry into a more serious Shakespeare. Perhaps we will both explore Falstaff the man, and add him to our list of favourites.




The images here are what Rosa 'Falstaff' looked like today, fat, big and red.