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 The later scenes are devoted to Rochester's pursuit of Oldcastle and his wife, and their escapes; the play ends on a temporary positive note, with the Oldcastles evading imprisonment. (Presumably, the lost second half of the play would have had the inevitable grimmer ending of Oldcastle's grisly death.) 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,