Bardolph (Shakespeare character)

Bardolph
Henriad character
Bardolph as imagined by Henry Stacy Marks
First appearance	Henry IV, Part 1
Last appearance	Henry V
Created by	William Shakespeare
Information
Gender	male
Occupation	thief; soldier
Religion	Christian
Nationality	English

Bardolph is a fictional character who appears in four plays by William Shakespeare. He is a thief who forms part of the entourage of Sir John Falstaff. His grossly inflamed nose and constantly flushed, carbuncle-covered face is a repeated subject for Falstaff's and Prince Hal's comic insults and word-play. Though his role in each play is minor, he often adds comic relief, and helps illustrate the personality change in Henry from Prince to King.

Throughout Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2, Bardolph is a drunkard pal of Henry who encourages him to commit petty crimes, resulting in the doubt and disapproval Henry's father shows toward Henry as heir to the throne. Nominally he is a soldier under Falstaff's command, and is referred to as a corporal in Part 2.

Bardolph's facial features, permanently flushed from alcohol and covered in pustules are a constant target of ribald remarks, often symbolically linked to imagery of heat and hellfire. In Henry IV, Part I, Falstaff says "I never see thy face but I think upon hell-fire and Dives that lived in purple; for there he is in his robes, burning, burning." In Part 2 Hal satirically says that Bardolph's "zeal burns in his nose", to which Falstaff replies "The fiend hath pricked down Bardolph irrecoverable; and his face is Lucifer's privy-kitchen, where he doth nothing but roast malt-worms [barflies]."

In Henry V, Bardolph participates in the war and is good friends with Pistol and Nym. By this stage he has been promoted to the rank of lieutenant. After the Fall of Harfleur, he is charged with looting, having been discovered stealing from a church in the conquered French town. He is sentenced to punishment of death by hanging. In a focal point of Henry V, King Henry, despite being friends with Bardolph in his youth, remorselessly agrees to his punishment and has him hanged.

Bardolph appears in The Merry Wives of Windsor as one of Falstaff's associates along with Nym and Pistol again, though his role is minor. Abraham Slender accuses him and the others of getting him drunk and then robbing him after he passed out. They all deny it.