The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1597, after which controversy over the original naming of Falstaff (he was originally the historic Sir John Oldcastle, which presumably did not please Oldcastle's descendants) forced Shakespeare to rename the character. It appears that the joke in V,v,85–90 is that Oldcastle/Falstaff incriminates himself by calling out the first letter of his name, "O, O, O!," when his fingertips are singed with candles—which of course works for "Oldcastle" but not "Falstaff." There is also the "castle" reference in IV,v,6. 18 January 1602 was the date the play was entered into the Register of the Stationers Company. The first quarto was
Memorials to William Shakespeare is thought to have posed for the statue. It was bequeathed, along with Garrick's books, to the British Museum in 1779; in 2005 it was transferred to the British Library. Garrick later commissioned Roubiliac to produce a bust of the poet for his Shakespeare festival in Stratford in 1769; this is now in the Garrick Club in London. In 1788, in the exterior wall of John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery building, the architect George Dance the Younger placed Thomas Banks's sculpture "Shakespeare attended by Painting and Poetry", for which the artist was paid 500 guineas. The sculpture depicted Shakespeare, reclining against