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- 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 John Russel. Shakespeare renamed the character to avoid suggestions that he was ridiculing the then-prominent Russell family, which included the Earls of Bedford. Bardolph is thought to be named after Thomas Bardolf, 5th Baron Bardolf (d. 1408), one of the rebels affiliated with the insurrection of Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland. In Henry V, Bardolph participates in the war (the Hundred Years' War) and is good friends with Pistol and Nym. By this stage he has been promoted to the rank of lieutenant. After the Fall of Harfleur (1415), he is charged with looting, having been discovered stealing from a church in the conquered French town. He is sentenced to punishment of death by hanging. In a focal point of Henry V, King Henry, despite being friends with Bardolph in his youth, remorselessly agrees to his punishment and has him hanged. (en)
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