Justice Shallow

Robert Shallow is a fictional character who appears in Shakespeare's plays Henry IV, Part 2 and The Merry Wives of Windsor. He is a wealthy landowner and Justice of the Peace in Gloucestershire, who at the time of The Merry Wives of Windsor is said to be over 80 ("four score years and upward").

A thin, vain and often self-deluding individual, used to life in the provinces, Shallow functions as a dramatic foil to the rotund and worldly Sir John Falstaff, who visits Shallow's lands on royal business, but later returns intending to fleece Shallow of his money. In the Merry Wives he visits Windsor with his relative Slender, encountering Falstaff once more.

It has long been speculated that Shallow is a satire of Sir Thomas Lucy, a local landowner near Stratford-upon-Avon, with whom Shakespeare is said to have got into trouble as a young man. Other real-life models have also been proposed.

In Henry IV, Part 2 Falstaff is commissioned to raise troops for the royal army to deal with a rebellion in the north. Shallow has been tasked to find suitable recruits in his locality. He tells his colleague Justice Silence that he looks forward to meeting Falstaff, who he hasn't seen for many years. He then reminisces about his youthful wild antics as a law student at Clement's Inn when Falstaff was a boy. When Falstaff arrives, Shallow is delighted by his witticisms, and invites him to stay longer.

In a soliloque after Shallow leaves, Falstaff tells the audience that Shallow's recollections of his supposedly wild student days are full of lies; that Shallow in those days was a skinny, feeble "cheese paring" of a man, noted only for his lechery. The local prostitutes called him "mandrake" because he looked like a "forked radish" when naked. But now he's wealthy, he's ripe for exploitation.

After the defeat of the rebels, Falstaff visits Shallow, claiming that when the Prince becomes king, Falstaff will be in a position to give Shallow an important and remunerative post. He borrows £1000 from Shallow on this basis. The two get drunk and reminisce again. News arrives that the old king is dead, so they rush to London. When the new king rejects Falstaff, Shallow demands his money back. When it becomes obvious Falstaff can't pay him back, he says he'll settle for half, but Falstaff says that's not possible. Shallow is forced out of the king's presence along with the lowlife characters.

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