Falstaff them: "let us every one go home, and laugh this sport o'er by a country fire; Sir John and all". Shakespeare originally named Falstaff "John Oldcastle". Lord Cobham, a descendant of the historical John Oldcastle, complained, forcing Shakespeare to change the name. Shakespeare's "Henry IV" plays and "Henry V" adapted and developed the material in an earlier play called "The Famous Victories of Henry V", in which Sir John "Jockey" Oldcastle appears as a dissolute companion of the young Henry. In the published version of "Henry IV, Part 1", Falstaff's name is always unmetrical, suggesting a name change after the
Sir John Oldcastle Sir John Oldcastle Sir John Oldcastle is an Elizabethan play about John Oldcastle, a controversial 14th-15th century rebel and Lollard who was seen by some of Shakespeare's contemporaries as a proto-Protestant martyr. The play was originally published anonymously in 1600 (Q1), printed by Valentine Simmes for the bookseller Thomas Pavier. In 1619, a new edition (Q2) carried an attribution to William Shakespeare. The Diary of Philip Henslowe records that the play was written by Anthony Munday, Michael Drayton, Richard Hathwaye and Robert Wilson. (An entry in Henslowe's Diary records a later payment to Drayton for a second part to the