Sir Hugh Evans

Sir Hugh listens

Sir Hugh Evans is a bit of a conundrum.  Shakespeare seems to want it two ways.  He mercilessly makes fun of the Welsh by exaggerating Evans' accent, but he never really goes after them.  He also want Sir Hugh to be the mender of souls, but is careful when attacking the man's profession or station.

Evans is a parson from Wales, and as such quite a few jokes come from his very thick accent.  He is a point of ridicule, but not nearly as much the French Dr. Caius.  There seems to be little real mockery towards the Welsh in the script, unlike the French who take it full on in the face.  Instead, Evans is made ridiculous by the tenants of his own character.

He talks in circles, and at times contradicts himself within the course of a single speech.  The playing of this is key.  It needs to make sense to him and no one else; a sort of Monty Python-esque tribute.



Contradiction of Job and Personality

Sir Hugh waits with Simple for duel to begin

I love it that he is more taken with behaviors antithetical to his profession.  He agrees to help Slender woo Anne.  He gets wrapped up in a duel with Dr. Caius.  He and Caius create the German Duke plot to seek revenge on the Hostess of the Garter for tricking them.  He agrees to gather the children of Windsor together to out Falstaff and teach him a lesson.  He hangs out with the Hostess of the Garter and in her place of business a lot.  These aren't things a man of the cloth normally pursue.  In fact he uses his profession only when trying to seem more trustworthy or of higher status.


I think his last line of the play sums it up best:

And given to fornications, and to taverns and sack and wine and metheglins [spiced Welsh wine], and to drinkings and swearings and starings [swaggerings], pribbles [vain chatter] and prabbles [silly quarrels]?

He is commenting on all the "bad" things Falstaff is guilty of when Evans himself has done all of those same things through the course of the play.

No one asks him for spiritual guidance really.  The Host makes mention that Caius mends his body while Evans mends his soul, but no one seeks his counsel or wisdom at any point.   This can be attributed more to Shakespeare's tenant that the middle class are remarkably self reliant.  There is the one scene where Meg Page asks Evans to quiz her youngest son William, but this scene is really more about making puns, and confusing Quickly with Evans strong accent and William's play on words.

Accent
As a general rule, Evans substitutes a p-sound for a b-sound, and changes a final d-sound for a t-sound.  So the phrase "By God" would sound like "Py Got".

Everything is a lot more guttural and filled with harsher consonants.

Outsider Status
His outsider status isn't mocked as mercilessly as Dr. Caius', which you have to attribute to the citizens of Windsor respecting his station in lie, even if he doesn't.  That said, he is not the one asked to perform the marriage between Anne and Fenton.

Costume Notes:
--Black, 3-piece suit with vest, white shirt dark tie with Parsons hat  
--Satyr costume