Falstaff as Impostor: 2 Henry IV
In the final scene of 2 Henry IV, Falstaff’s old associate who has been newly crowned as King Henry V of England rebuffs the fat knight and criticizes his “role” in society:
How ill white hairs becomes a fool and a jester!
(V, v: 49)
Shakespeare may not only be indicating that the new king has completed his transformation and has kept his promise of reformation that he had pledged in the beginning of 1 Henry IV (I, ii: 199-221), but the playwright may also be indicating that the Falstaff of 2 Henry IV is no longer recognizable as fitting into the same comic role that he had held previously in the first history play. Falstaff is no longer a Jester. Northrop Frye is essentially in agreement with this position: the critic notes that in 2 Henry IV, “Falstaff, in short, is beginning to feel the strain of a professional jester whose jokes no longer go over, apart from the fact that he does not stop with jokes” (On Shakespeare 80). Falstaff is no longer the same comic type.
The changes in Falstaff are both subtle and complex. He continues to keep many of the same traits and characteristics that were established in the first play, and because of this the audience may not at first notice any change at all in the portly lord. But as the second play progresses, some members of the