Mistress Quickly

[2] Quickly's character is most fully developed in Henry IV, Part 2 in which her contradictory aspirations to gentility and barely concealed vulgarity are brought out in her language.According to James C. Bulman, she "unwittingly reveals her sexual history" by her blithe malapropisms and "her character is both defined and undone by her absurdly original speech".In Henry IV, Part 2, she asks the authorities to arrest Falstaff, accusing him of running up excessive debts and making a fraudulent proposal of marriage to her (implying that she is now a widow).[6] Mistress Quickly has a friendship of long standing with Doll Tearsheet, a prostitute who frequents the tavern, and protects her against aggressive men she calls "swaggerers".In The Merry Wives of Windsor she works as nurse to Caius, a French physician, but primarily acts as a messenger between other characters, communicating love notes in a plot largely concerned with misdirected letters.The plan appears to succeed, but Shallow and Slender find out their true identities and switch places at the weddings with Ancient Pistol and Corporal Nym, so she ends up married to Pistol, as in Henry V. James White's book Falstaff's Letters (1796) purports to be a collection of letters written by Falstaff and his associates, provided by a descendant of Mistress Quickly's sister.
The earliest depiction of Mistress Quickly (labelled "hostes[s]") with Falstaff, in a print from 1662 that depicts popular stage characters of the time
HenriadFrancis Philip StephanoffWilliam Shakespeareinn-keeperBoar's Head TavernSir John FalstaffHenry IV, Part 1Henry IV, Part 2Henry VThe Merry Wives of Windsormalapropismsdouble entendresFalstaffEastcheapDoll TearsheetAncient PistolCorporal NymsyphilisBardolphFalstaff's WeddingWilliam KenrickRobert ShallowJames WhiteCapitalCambridge University PressMacmillan PublishersTaylor & FrancisOxford University PressOverture to The Merry Wives of WindsorSir John in LoveLone Star LoveHerne the HunterIl PecoroneRichard IICharles VIFluellenHenry IVPrince HalOwain GlyndŵrOwen GlendowerHolinshed's ChroniclesThe Famous Victories of Henry VThomas of WoodstockSir John OldcastleKing Richard IIAn Age of KingsThe Life and Death of King Richard IIRichard the SecondThe Hollow CrownChimes at MidnightThe KingAt the Boar's HeadSuite from Henry V