FALSTAFF: If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused gurnet. I have
misused the king's press damnably. I have got, in exchange of a hundred and
fifty soldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. I press me none but good
householders, yeomen's sons; inquire me out contracted bachelors, such as had
been asked twice on the banes -- such a commodity of warm slaves as had as
lieve hear the devil as a drum, such as fear the report of a caliver worse than
a struck fowl or a hurt wild duck. I pressed me none but such
toasts-and-butter, with hearts in their bellies no bigger than pins' heads, and
they have bought out their services; and now my whole charge consists of
ancients, corporals, lieutenants, gentlemen of companies -- slaves as ragged as
Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the glutton's dogs licked his sores; and
such as indeed were never soldiers, but discarded unjust servingmen, younger
sons to younger brothers, revolted tapsters, and ostlers trade-fall'n; the
cankers of a calm world and a long peace; ten times more dishonorable ragged
than an old fazed ancient; and such have I to fill up the rooms of them as have
bought out their services that you would think that I had a hundred and fifty
tattered prodigals lately come from swine-keeping, from eating draff and husks.
A mad fellow met me on the way, and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and
pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I'll not march
through Coventry with them, that's flat. Nay, and the villains march wide
betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on, for indeed I had the most of them out
of prison. There's not a shirt and a half in all my company, and the half-shirt
is two napkins tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like a herald's
coat without sleeves; and the shirt, to say the truth, stol'n from my host at
Saint Alban's, or the red-nose innkeeper of Daventry. But that's all one;
they'll find linen enough on every hedge.
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This monologue was probably the most difficult as it was Shakespearean.This monologue was very difficult to translate but I liked in nonetheless, as soon as I read it I started getting ideas about the character. Performing a Shakespearean monologue today is difficult because there are few guidelines, this is because we do not perform them the way they were originally intended to be performed, for example they would have performed this with very little facial expression because a lot of the audience would not have been able to see the actor meaning he would have to rely heavily on his voice.
I portrayed Falstaff as an old angry man who was very disappointed. At this point in the play Falstaff has acquired an army by going through villages and offering money to common folk. In this speech he has realised that he's made a mistake. This monologue is a rant about the poor quality of his company.
One of the main themes in the play is honour, Falstaff is one of the most dishonourable characters in the play serving with his dishonourable partner in crime, Prince Hal. Dishonour is not an easy theme to portray through a monologue, many dishonourable characters are usually that of a sneaky and dishonest nature. I did not want to portray Falstaff in this way because of his importance to the storyline and the archetype he was. I chose to portray Falstaff in a loud and grumpy way, I think this was effective because he was more of a full on character so the audience got the full range of his personality.
My physicality for Falstaff was very hunched because he is quite old and he's been in wars. My view was that he was very cocky, I believe Falstaff thinks he has more rights than everyone else because he is a war veteran. To show this, whilst trying to stay hunched I tried to be open with my physicality. I paced up and down the floor during the speech because it shoes the frustration in the characters mind and that is one of the main aspects of this scene, frustration. Because of the frustration my facial expressions were very similar to that of an angry old man. I believe this was effective because it is something that people can relate to which isn't too common in a Shakespearean piece.
I seen Falstaff as having quite a deep rough sounding voice because of the way he is as a character so that is the voice I developed, whilst developing this character I realised I could go deeper with the voice. The way I would describe the voice is raspy.
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