In a comic scene, a drunk Falstaff enjoys a rowdy dinner in Eastcheap, a low-class neighborhood in the play, with Mistress Quickly, the hostess of a tavern to whom he owes a good deal of money, and Doll Tearsheet, a prostitute. Teasing Falstaff, Doll alludes to a series of figures from Greek mythology and medieval history:
Ah, you sweet little rogue, you. Alas, poor ape,
how thou sweat’st! Come, let me wipe thy face.
Come on, you whoreson chops. Ah, rogue, i’ faith, I love thee. Thou art as valorous as Hector of Troy,
worth five of Agamemnon, and ten times better
than the Nine Worthies. Ah, villain!
Here, Doll mixes insult with praise, first insulting him for being sweaty but then affectionately wiping the sweat off of his face. Teasingly, she claims that Falstaff is not only “as valorous as Hector of Troy” but also “worth five of Agamemnon” and even “ten times better / than the Nine Worthies.” Here, she alludes first to Hector, the greatest soldier in the Trojan army in Homer’s Iliad. Next, she compares Falstaff to Agamemnon, a king who, in the Iliad, leads the Greek army in the siege of Troy. Finally, she alludes to the “Nine Worthies,” or nine men from history and legend who were understood in medieval England to exemplify the virtues of “Chivalry,” including Alexander the Great and King Arthur. Doll’s praise exemplifies verbal irony; in hyperbolically comparing him to these famous and worthy men, she ironically emphasizes Falstaff’s cowardly and self-serving nature.
