Justice Shallow

Justice Shallow first appears in Henry IV, Part 2 as an old friend of Falstaff's.  In this play they have a very warm relationship.  Falstaff owes him a thousand pounds and when Henry IV dies at the end of the play, Falstaff asks Shallow to follow him to the castle.  Falstaff believes that his drinking buddy Prince Hal, now King Henry V, will reward him for his long devotion and friendship.  Instead the new King Henry ignores Falstaff, leaving the folly of youth behind, and devastating the fat knight.

Shallow witnesses this and, rather than press his friend for the money, he tries to forgive him half of the debt and asks Falstaff to come to his home in the country [Windsor].  Falstaff agrees but says that he will pay him what he owes.

Shakespeare's Biography

 

We know very little about the man who is named William Shakespeare, and anyone who tells you differently is mad.  Record keeping 400 years ago was inconsistent at best, and very few official documents still exist.  Shakespeare, while a prolific writer for the stage did not keep a journal, letters, or much else in personal writings.  The information that follows comes from Bill Bryson's mercifully brief and soulfully witty biography of Shakespeare, Shakespeare:  The World as Stage.

The facts are these:

--He was baptized on April 26, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.  It is merely a tradition to say that he was born on April 23; birth certificates were not kept, only baptismal records.  April 23 is an important date for a few reasons:  (1) it is St. George's Day and (2) it is the same day Shakepeare died in 1612.  Poets, dramatists and dreamers all love symmetry.