Katy de Sousa
Falstaff’s Enthymeme in King Henry IV, Part 1
In Shakespeare’s King Henry IV, Part I, Jack Falstaff and Prince Hal decide upon a theatrical role-reversal in order to calm Hal’s nerves before confronting his father. What begins innocently enough ends with the topic of Falstaff’s banishment, where Falstaff pleads on his own behalf:
If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked! If to be old and merry a sin, then many an old host that I know is damned: if to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh’s lean kine are to be loved. No, my good lord; banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish
Poins - but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant, being as he is old Jack Falstaff, banish not him thy Harry’s company, banish not him thy
Harry’s company, banish plump Jack, and banish all…show more content… (2.4.464-474)
Falstaff begins by praising those who indulge in food, alcohol, and other vices as a way of defending his own excesses. He then proceeds to bring King Henry’s (Hal’s) judgment into question by implying that since being “fat” is seen as leading a wicked lifestyle, then the Pharaoh’s “lean kine,” or cattle (OED), must be on the list of the virtuous. By referencing the Biblical story of Joseph and the Pharaoh, Shakespeare utilizes the literary device of classical allusion to send a message to his reader or audience. Given that the cursed cattle