Doll Tearsheet

Doll Tearsheet
Henriad character
Doll Tearsheet with Falstaff, detail of a painting by Eduard von Grützner
First appearance	Henry IV, Part 2
Created by	William Shakespeare
Information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Prostitute
Religion	Christian
Nationality	English

Doll Tearsheet is a fictional character who appears in Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 2. She is a prostitute who frequents the Boar's Head Inn in Eastcheap. Doll is close friends with Mistress Quickly, the proprietor of the tavern, who procures her services for Falstaff.

Doll is noted for her wide repertoire of colourful insults and her sudden switches from wild tirades to sentimental intimacy and back again.

Doll is introduced by name when Mistress Quickly asks Falstaff whether he would like her company that evening. The Page later mentions to Prince Hal and Poins that Falstaff will be seeing her, primly referring to her as "a proper gentlewoman, sir, and a kinswoman of my master's", though Hal quickly concludes that she is probably "some road" (meaning a whore: accessible to anyone, as in the phrase "as common as the cart-way").

Doll is first seen about to be sick after drinking too much "canaries" (fortified wine from the Canary islands). When Falstaff arrives they exchange lewd banter about venereal disease. Informed that Ancient Pistol is at the door, Doll insists that he should not be allowed in because he's "the foul-mouthed'st rogue in England." After Pistol enters, Doll berates him with a string of insults: "I scorn you, scurvy companion. What! you poor, base, rascally, cheating, lack-linen mate! Away, you mouldy rogue, away!" She then threatens him with a knife, and Pistol pulls his sword. In the ensuing fight, Falstaff and Bardolph force him out.

After his display of fighting prowess, Doll becomes very solicitous to Falstaff, calling him a "whoreson little valiant villain". She sits on his knee and kisses him. She asks him what Prince Hal is like; Falstaff gives a rather unflattering picture of him, unaware that Hal and Poins are nearby. When they reveal themselves, Falstaff claims he was intentionally "dispraising" the prince in the presence of "the wicked". Hal professes to be shocked, describing Doll as a "virtuous gentlewoman", to the enthusiastic agreement of Mistress Quickly. But Falstaff says Doll is "in hell already, and burns poor souls" (a reference to the burning sensation of venereal disease). When Falstaff is called away to the war, Doll becomes tearful. He leaves, but then calls on her to join him.