How many lines does Falstaff have in Henry IV, Part I?
The size of the part, every scene it speaks in, its longest speeches, and how long it takes to learn.
The Offbook team
Oct 8, 2026
Falstaff has about 620 lines in Henry IV, Part I: 5,510 words in 151 speeches, 23% of the play, and the largest part. The role speaks in 8 of the 19 scenes, and its longest wait is 2 scenes in a row without a line.
Falstaff has the largest part in the play, nearly a quarter of the words, and almost all of it is prose. More than a third of his words come in one scene, the long tavern scene in Act 2, Scene 4, with the tale of the Gad’s Hill robbery and the play-acting with Hal. Later set pieces include his ragged recruits, his speech on honor, and playing dead at Shrewsbury.
- Lines
- 620
- Words
- 5,510
- Share of play
- 23%
- Speech time
- 39 min
1% of the words are verse. 151 speeches means about 151 cues to learn.
Scene by scene
| Scene | Words | Minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Act 1, Scene 2 | 707 | 5.0 |
| Act 2, Scene 2 | 474 | 3.4 |
| Act 2, Scene 4 | 2,002 | 14.3 |
| Act 3, Scene 3 | 1,005 | 7.2 |
| Act 4, Scene 2 | 531 | 3.8 |
| Act 5, Scene 1 | 186 | 1.3 |
| Act 5, Scene 3 | 220 | 1.6 |
| Act 5, Scene 4 | 385 | 2.8 |
The longest speeches
| Speech | Scene | Words |
|---|---|---|
| “If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused …” | Act 4, Scene 2 | 350 |
| “Peace, good pint-pot; peace, good tickle-brain. Ha…” | Act 2, Scene 4 | 226 |
| “I am accursed to rob in that thief’s company: the …” | Act 2, Scene 2 | 204 |
| “No, I’ll be sworn; I make as good use of it as man…” | Act 3, Scene 3 | 199 |
| “Embowelled! if thou embowel me to-day, I’ll give y…” | Act 5, Scene 4 | 182 |
| “’Tis not due yet; I would be loath to pay him befo…” | Act 5, Scene 1 | 151 |
| “But to say I know more harm in him than in myself,…” | Act 2, Scene 4 | 147 |
| “By the Lord, I knew ye as well as he that made ye.…” | Act 2, Scene 4 | 135 |
How many lines a day to learn
New lines a day to be off book in time, learning five days a week. Review what you already know on the other days.
| Time until off book | New lines a day |
|---|---|
| 2 weeks | 62 |
| 3 weeks | 42 |
| 4 weeks | 31 |
| 6 weeks | 21 |
Questions actors ask
How many lines does Falstaff have in Henry IV, Part I?
About 620 lines: 7 lines of verse and 5,454 words of prose. That is 5,510 words in 151 speeches, 23% of the play and the largest part.
How long is Falstaff’s longest speech?
350 words, in Act 4, Scene 2, beginning “If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused gurnet. I have misused the king’s press damnably. I have got, in exchange of a hundred and fifty soldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. I press me none but good house-holders, yeoman’s sons; inquire me out contracted bachelors, such as had been asked twice on the banns; such a commodity of warm slaves, as had as lieve hear the devil as a drum; such as fear the report of a caliver worse than a struck fowl or a hurt wild-duck. I pressed me none but such toasts-and-butter, with hearts in their bellies no bigger than pins’ heads, and they have bought out their services; and now my whole charge consists of ancients, corporals, lieutenants, gentlemen of companies, slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the glutton’s dogs licked his sores; and such as indeed were never soldiers, but discarded unjust serving-men, younger sons to younger brothers, revolted tapsters and ostlers trade-fallen, the cankers of a calm world and a long peace, ten times more dishonourable ragged than an old faced ancient: and such have I, to fill up the rooms of them that have bought out their services, that you would think that I had a hundred and fifty tattered prodigals lately come from swine-keeping, from eating draff and husks. A mad fellow met me on the way and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I’ll not march through Coventry with them, that’s flat: nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on; for indeed I had the most of them out of prison. There’s but a shirt and a half in all my company; and the half shirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like an herald’s coat without sleeves; and the shirt, to say the truth, stolen from my host at Saint Alban’s, or the red-nose innkeeper of Daventry. But that’s all one; they’ll find linen enough on every hedge.” At 140 words a minute it runs about 2.5 minutes.
How long does it take to learn Falstaff?
To be off book in three weeks, learning five days a week, plan on about 42 new lines a day, plus time to review what you already know. Start with your longest speeches and the scenes with the most cues.
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