By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Parolles, Bertram’s friend in Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, has often eclipsed Bertram in productions of the play and become the male centre of it, much as Falstaff overshadows Prince Hal in Henry IV Parts 1 and 2. Indeed, Parolles as a character has been likened to Falstaff by numerous critics, most famously, Samuel Johnson.