Burgess begins this lecture by outlining the aims of this course again which is to show that Shakespeare’s life and works reflect each other. This lecture, Burgess says, will consider 1597 as a turning point in Elizabethan Drama. Burgess discusses the new ‘Comedy of Humours’ that other writers like George Chapman and Ben Jonson began writing this year which satirised contemporary manners; the theory of humours as constituting personalities; the influence that humours comedies had on Shakespeare’s work; and Jonson’s relationship with, satires of, and dramatic approach compared to Shakespeare. Burgess then moves to discuss how these humours comedies influenced, in Burgess’s eyes, Shakespeare’s finest comic creations: Sir John Falstaff. Burgess then discusses Falstaff at length as a significant character in Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2 as well as The Merry Wives of Windsor, before ending the lecture with the end of the lease John Burbage had on The Theatre in 1597.
Burgess quotes extensively from Shakespeare’s works in this lecture, including Part 1: 36:32 Henry IV, Part 1, Act 1, Scene 2 (“Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?...”); Part 1: 47:50 Henry IV, Part 1, Act 2, Scene 4 (“Weep not, sweet queen; for trickling tears are vain…”); and Part 2: 10:00 Henry IV, Part 2, Act 5 Scene 5 (“God save thy Grace, King Hal; my royal Hal!...”).
Burgess also draws on references to Shakespeare in other texts. Part 1: 17:13, Burgess discusses Shakespeare as acting in Jonson’s Every Man in His Humour, who satirises Shakespeare’s gentlemanly pretentions. Later, Burgess references George owell’s 1984 for the moment when Winston Smith wakes up “with the word “Shakespeare” on his lips” to introduce the impact of Falstaff in literature.