Sir John Oldcastle ("Epistle to Sir Harry Bourchier", c. 1625) and Thomas Fuller ("Worthies of England," 1662). It is also indicated in details in the early texts of Shakespeare's plays. In the quarto text of "Henry IV, Part 2" (1600), one of Falstaff's speech prefixes in Act I, Scene ii is mistakenly left uncorrected, "Old." instead of "Falst." In III,ii,25-6 of the same play, Falstaff is said to have been a "page to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk" — which was true of the historical Oldcastle. In "Henry IV, Part 1", I,ii,42, Prince Hal calls Falstaff "my old lad of the castle." Iambic
Religious views of William Shakespeare Shakespeare's portrayal; the story of Oldcastle was a popular one and telling the tale from the "Papist" perspective (while acknowledging that perhaps this was a perspective with which Shakespeare already had some affinity) was an effective and familiar way to bring it to his audience. A direct explanation, however, comes from the facts of the story in the contemporary accounts of the period; Prince Henry had left his dear friend Oldcastle to his fate after he had failed to persuade the stubborn old knight to recant when he was imprisoned for lollardry. Archdeacon Richard Davies, a 17th-century Anglican cleric, wrote