Bardolph (Shakespeare character) He is sentenced to punishment of death by hanging. In a focal point of "Henry V", King Henry, despite being friends with Bardolph in his youth, remorselessly agrees to his punishment and has him hanged. Bardolph appears in "The Merry Wives of Windsor" as one of Falstaff's associates along with Nym and Pistol again, though his role is minor. Abraham Slender accuses him and the others of getting him drunk and then robbing him after he passed out. They all deny it. Later, Bardolph is dismissed by Falstaff because of his inadequate thieving skills ("his filching was like an unskilful
Richard III (play) the antagonist. Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt notes how Richard even refers to himself as "the formal Vice, Iniquity" (3.1.82), which informs the audience that he knows what his function is; but also like Vice in the morality plays, the fates will turn and get Richard in the end, which Elizabethan audiences would have recognised. In addition, the character of Richmond enters into the play in Act V to overthrow Richard and save the state from his tyranny, effectively being the instantaneous new protagonist. Richmond is a clear contrast to Richard's evil character, which makes the audience see him as such.