The Life of Sir John Falstaff

by Robert B. Brough

* Hall, folio 21—‘22, &c.
** Pinnock on Goldsmith—a work that has not come within
the sphere of my observation for many years. The passage
quoted, however, and many others from the same, were
indelibly impressed on my memory at the time of perusal by a
system of mnemonics now unhappily falling into disuse.—
Biographer.

Whether it was that the insurgent chieftains had formed a mistaken estimate of the king’s nature, and imagined that he required a great deal of provoking before he could be induced to give them the thrashing they seemed so ardently to desire, it would be difficult to say. At any rate, on the morning of the battle, Sir Thomas Percy, the Earl of Worcester, thought it advisable to look in on the royal camp, as he happened to be passing, with a flag of truce, and favour his Majesty with a viva voce resume of some of the heads of his nephew’s spirited epistle of the preceding night, which might have slipped the royal memory. To Percy’s address—which has been put into excellent blank verse by Shakspeare—the king replied with a proposal that the rebels should lay down their arms and go home quietly, which he knew would not be accepted. Percy departed, and the royal council of war at which he had been heard—and at the deliberations of which the Princes Henry and John, with Sir Walter Blunt and Sir John Falstaff, had assisted—broke up to prepare for action.

The rival armies were drawn up on a large plain near the town of Shrewsbury overlooked by Haughmond Hill. The character of the ground is indicated in the opening lines of the fifth act of the chronicle of “Henry the Fourth” (Part I.):—

“How bloodily the sun begins to peer
Above yon bosky hill!
The day looks pale
At his distemperature.”

Herein we have one of ten thousand proofs of Shakspeare’s fidelity to historic and natural truth on all occasions. Mr. Blakeway says that great author has described the scene as accurately as if he had surveyed it. “It still merits the appellation of a bosky hill.”

“Bosky” must be taken in its ancient and poetical sense, signifying “wood-covered,” and not in its more modern and familiar acceptation, which the presence of Sir John Falstaff, Bardolph, and other warriors of their way of living, might have rendered applicable to the aspect of the country.

The opposing forces were about equal in number, each army consisting in round numbers of twelve thousand men. In point of discipline and training the advantages were also fairly balanced. The light infantry, under Sir John Falstaff, consisted, as we have seen, of raw recruits, indifferently clad and nourished. But, as an offset to this must be taken into consideration the condition of the Scots under Douglas—large numbers of whom, being from the northern highlands, were, according to English notions, of necessity more imperfectly clothed than even the Falstaff troops themselves. For courage on either side there could not have been much to choose; Englishmen and Scotchmen could hit as hard, and were quite as fond of doing it, then as in the present day.

Hume, writing of this decisive engagement, says:—

“We shall scarcely find any battle in those ages where the shock was more
“terrible and more constant. Henry exposed his person in the thickest of
“the fight: his gallant son, whose military achievements were afterwards so
“renowned, and who here performed his novitiate in arms, signalised himself
“on his father’s footsteps; and even a wound, which he received in the face
“with an arrow, could not oblige him to quit the field. Percy supported that
“fame which he had acquired in many a bloody combat; and Douglas, his
“ancient enemy, and now his friend, still appeared his rival amongst the
“horror and confusion of the day. This nobleman performed feats of valour
“which are almost incredible: he seemed determined that the King of England
“should that day fall by his arm: he sought him all over the field of battle;
“and as Henry, either to elude the attacks of the enemy on his person, or to
“encourage his own men by the belief of his presence everywhere, had
“accoutred several captains in the royal garb, the sword of Douglas rendered
“this honour fatal to many: but while the armies were contending in this
“furious manner, the death of Percy, by an unknown hand, decided the victory,
“and the royalists prevailed. There are said to have fallen on that day, on
“both sides, near two thousand three hundred gentlemen; but the persons
“of greatest distinction were on the king’s: the Earl of Stafford, Sir Hugh
“Shirley, Sir Nicholas Ganoil, Sir Hugh Mortimer, Sir John Massey, Sir
“John Calonly. About six thousand private men perished, of whom two-
“thirds were of Percy’s army. The Earls of Worcester and Douglas were
“taken prisoners: the former was beheaded at Shrewsbury; the latter was
“treated with the courtesy due to his rank and merit.”

The above account is substantially correct. To the list of killed and wounded it is necessary to add the names of Sir Walter Blunt amongst the two thousand three hundred gentlemen, and amongst the six thousand private men, one hundred and forty-seven hapless warriors whose particular fate will be presently mentioned. Sir Walter Blunt was one of the several captains whom the king had “accoutred in the royal garb,” with the view “either to elude the attacks of the enemy on his person, or to encourage his own men by the belief in his presence everywhere.” The reader may accept which theory he pleases. I myself incline to the former, having the greatest confidence in Henry Bolingbroke’s wisdom as a general and sense of his own value as an individual.