15 Facts About Ned Poins

Ned Poins is Prince Hal's closest friend during his wild youth.

Ned Poins appears early in Henry IV, Part I to inform Falstaff that at Gads Hill there will be unprotected "pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses".

When Falstaff and the others agree, Ned Poins says to Hal that the pair of them should play trick on Falstaff by letting them rob the travellers, but then in disguise robbing the robbers of their haul.

Ned Poins is with Hal when Hal plays a joke on Francis, a drawer at the Boar's Head.

In Part 2 Ned Poins discusses the illness of Hal's father the king, expecting Hal to be pleased at the prospect of his father's death.

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Ned Poins suggests that they disguise themselves again, this time as waiters, to overhear the conversation.

At the tavern, Doll asks why Hal likes Ned Poins, Falstaff says that they are both similar in size and shape, and equally empty headed: "His wit's as thick as Tewkesbury mustard.

Ned Poins is "of uncertain social standing", but his comment that his only problem is that he is a "second brother" implies that he is "a gentleman with no inheritance, his gentility making him an appropriate companion for Hal".

Ned Poins represents wayward tendencies within the upper class, closely linked to Hal's own behaviour.

In Part 2 in particular, Hal appears to become visibly embittered by his association with the world of Falstaff and Ned Poins, using increasingly open derogatory language about both of them, but Ned Poins is never explicitly rejected, unlike Falstaff.

Poins is a development of the character "Ned" in Shakespeare's principal source, The Famous Victories of Henry V Some passages appear to be derived directly from the earlier play, such as the conversation in which Poins says Hal would be thought a hypocrite if he mourned for his estranged father, which derives from a scene in Famous Victories in which Ned says that mourning would "make folks believe the death of your father grieves you, and tis nothing so".

Ned Poins was one of those loyal natures who, in all ages, are to be found attaching themselves instinctively to some great man, taking their tone and colour in all things from the illustrious model.

Mr Ned Poins cut his hair and his conscience in exact imitation of the Prince of Wales.

Mr Ned Poins followed them all with scrupulous fidelity; but was quite ready to change them for sad-coloured doublets, square toes, early rising, temperance, and respectability, at a moment's notice.

The now "Sir Edward Ned Poins" writes a dismissive letter to Falstaff informing him that he will only be allowed in the royal palace when it is open to the public for viewing tapestries.