Day 148: New Play Tuesday! Henry IV, Part I

Falstaff and Prince Hal, Henry IV, Part I (Act II, Scene iv) via mystudios.com

Contrary to popular belief (okay not popular belief, just my lazy assumption), Shakespeare wrote the Richard II and the Henry IV plays AFTER he wrote Henry V and the Henry VI plays. There was no Henry VII as far as I can tell. OR WAS THERE? (No, there was not.)

And apparently Falstaff, that old crowd favourite, was actually supposed to be called Oldcastle, based on a real guy, except that he still had living relatives in Shakespeare's day who were very influential and they threatened to...whatever the Elizabethan version of suing for defamation was. So he changed it to Falstaff, based on John Fastolf...who had no living heirs to complain. Or at least that's what Wikipedia says.