Henry IV, Part I (Shakespeare)
The play that first introduces Falstaff to us needs no further commendation; the battles and treasons, the Percies and Northumberlands and Glendowers, pale into insignificance beside the rich humour of the fat knight, the fiery Bardolph and sweet Ned Poins. In the series of Shakespeare's histories Henry IV, Part I, is notable for being the first of the trilogy which culminates with the apotheosis of one of Shakespeare's most popular heroes, Henry V, of the Harfleur and Agincourt scenes; but in the Shakespearean range as a whole it is important as the beginning of that little story of low life that ends (also in Henry V) with the pathetic story of the last scene in Eastcheap, when Falstaff 'babbled of green fields'.