Artwork Information

Proving that love is indeed blind, when the fat rascal Falstaff dandles the beautiful but quarrelsome prostitute, Doll Tearsheet, on his knee after they have argued, she cries:

Ah, you sweet little rogue, you! alas, poor ape, how thou sweatest! come, let me wipe thy face; come on, you whoreson chops: ah, rogue! i' faith, I love thee: thou art as valorous as Hector of Troy, worth five of Agamemnon, and ten times better than the Nine Worthies…'

Doll's description paints Falstaff as both monster and hero, for familiarity draws attention away from his ugliness, while she stands for a perceived instability in the female sex that lurks beneath the surface of outward beauty. (Monsters and Maidens, 2004)