John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk further been suggested that his comic catchphrase was deliberately intended to invoke Sir John Falstaff, one of Shakespeare's best known characters, for the audience. In Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Part 2", Justice Shallow refers to Falstaff as having once been a page to "Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk", Mowbray's grandfather. Falstaff is commonly considered to be a fictional representation of either Sir John Oldcastle or Sir John Fastolf—or possibly an amalgamation of the two—both of whom are variously associated with Mowbray. John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, KG, Earl Marshal (12 September 1415 – 6
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,