The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. · Chapter
The Boar’s Head Tavern, Eastcheap explained
Geoffrey Crayon embarks on a pilgrimage to Eastcheap in search of the legendary Boar's Head Tavern, the setting of Shakespeare's Falstaff scenes.
What happens
Geoffrey Crayon embarks on a pilgrimage to Eastcheap in search of the legendary Boar's Head Tavern, the setting of Shakespeare's Falstaff scenes. He finds only a stone boar's head built into a modern building and learns the tavern's history from a local widow. He then visits St. Michael's Church to see a painting of the old tavern, encountering a sexton and a talkative parish clerk. The chapter reflects on the power of literary illusion and the decay of historical landmarks.
Themes in this chapter
Literary Creation and Plagiarism
Crayon reflects on the nature of literary pilgrimage and the illusion of fiction, celebrating Falstaff as a creation that enriches life.
Memory and Monuments
The chapter explores the decay of the physical tavern and the preservation of its memory through a stone sign, a painting, and literary tradition.
Nostalgia and the Past
Crayon's quest is driven by a longing for the vanished world of Shakespeare's tavern and the merry roisterers of old Eastcheap.
Characters to notice
- Geoffrey Crayon
Narrator who makes a pilgrimage to Eastcheap to find the Boar's Head Tavern.
- Dame Quickly
Mentioned as the former hostess of the Boar's Head Tavern; Crayon seeks traces of her.
- Falstaff
Celebrated as 'kind Jack Falstaff' and 'fat Jack'; the tavern's legendary guest.
- Shakespeare
The immortal bard whose comic scenes inspired Crayon's pilgrimage.
- Dame Honeyball
The sexton's wife, who provides a drink and is mentioned in Crayon's farewell.
- William Walworth
Mentioned as a figure whose biography could be included in a fuller account.
Key passages
“I will make a pilgrimage to Eastcheap, and see if the old Boar's Head Tavern still exists.”
Crayon decides to visit Eastcheap to find the legendary Boar's Head Tavern.
This sets the chapter's central quest in motion.
“I would not give up fat Jack for half the great men of ancient chronicle.”
Crayon values the fictional Falstaff more than many historical heroes.
Highlights the theme of literary creation's enduring value.
“The only relict of it is a boar's head, carved in relief in stone, which formerly served as the sign, but at present is built into the parting line of two houses.”
Only a stone boar's head remains of the original tavern, now embedded in a modern building.
Illustrates the physical decay of historical landmarks.