Prelude -- Playing Falstaff -- Beautiful, laughing, living speech -- Hotspur: die all, die merrily -- Whose Falstaff is it? -- Bardolph's nose -- Falstaff rises in the body -- Foregrounding Falstaff -- Darkening Falstaff -- Shakespeare darkening -- Who plays the King -- Ancient Pistol and Doll Tearsheet -- Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown -- Shallow and silence: Falstaff at recruitment -- Prince John of Lancaster at betrayal -- Falstaff on sherris sack -- Master Robert Shallow and Falstaff -- Falstaff in Shallow's orchard -- The arrest of Mistress Quickly and Doll Tearsheet -- The rejection of Falstaff -- The death of Sir John Falstaff.