In a comedic scene suffused with dramatic irony, Falstaff presents a highly distorted version of recent events depicted in the play. Poins, a companion of Prince Hal, earlier devised a scheme to embarrass Falstaff. After giving Falstaff directions to rob some traveling Christian pilgrims, he and Prince Hal don disguises and then rob Falstaff of his ill-gotten gains. After Poins’s plan has been completed, he, Hal, and Falstaff watch in amusement as Falstaff spins a web of outrageous lies:
FALSTAFF: Nay, that’s past praying for. I have peppered
two of them. Two I am sure I have paid, two rogues
in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a
lie, spit in my face, call me horse. Thou knowest my
old ward. Here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four
rogues in buckram let drive at me.PRINCE: What, four? Thou said’st but two even now.
FALSTAFF: Four, Hal, I told thee four.
POINS: Ay, ay, he said four.
FALSTFF: These four came all afront, and mainly
thrust at me. I made me no more ado, but took all
their seven points in my target, thus.PRINCE: Seven? Why there were but four even now.
Prince Hal and Poins are quick to point out the inconsistencies in Falstaff’s story: he first describes “two rogues in buckram suits,” and by the end of that same paragraph, the number of enemy swordsmen has doubled to “four rogues in buckram.” Shortly later, the number has increased yet again to seven. An amused Prince Hal pokes at the holes in his account, reminding him that there “were but four” earlier in the story.
The humor of the scene stems from Shakespeare’s employment of dramatic irony. The audience knows something that Falstaff does not: Prince Hal and Poins orchestrated this attack for their own amusement and can see right through his lies. As Falstaff exaggerates his account further and further, the irony of the scene grows increasingly pointed.
