Bardolph (Shakespeare character) Bardolph (Shakespeare character) Bardolph is a fictional character who appears in four plays by William Shakespeare. He is a thief who forms part of the entourage of Sir John Falstaff. His grossly inflamed nose and constantly flushed, carbuncle-covered face is a repeated subject for Falstaff's and Prince Hal's comic insults and word-play. Though his role in each play is minor, he often adds comic relief, and helps illustrate the personality change in Henry from Prince to King. In early published versions of "Henry IV, Part 1", the character is called Rossill or sir Iohn Russel. Shakespeare renamed the character to
Portraits of Shakespeare only 15. Another example is the "Flower portrait", named for its owner, Sir Desmond Flower, who donated it to the Shakespeare Museum in 1911. This was once thought to be the earliest painting depicting Shakespeare, and the model for the Droeshout engraving. It was shown in a 2005 National Portrait Gallery investigation to be a 19th-century fake adapted from the engraving. The image of Shakespeare was painted over an authentic 16th-century painting of a Madonna and child. In 1849 a death mask was made public by a German artist, Ludwig Becker, who linked it to a painting which, he claimed,