You Bet Your Shakespeare

Quizmaster Groucho Marx can usually talk his way out of any difficulty on NBC's You Bet Your Life. But two contestants recently trying for a $1,000 jackpot stumped him.

Groucho's jackpot question: "In Shakespeare's Henry IV, Henry V and Merry Wives of Windsor, there appears a cowardly braggart whose good humor and wit have endeared him to millions the world over . . . I want you to identify this genial fellow." Contestants Muriel Stetson of Rivera, Calif, and Arthur LaVove of Los Angeles, teamed together, thought a moment, then answered "Pistol." Wrong, said Groucho. "The correct answer is Falstaff."

After the show, the contestants argued the point with Comic Marx. Pistol, they insisted, was the correct answer, because Falstaff does not appear in all three plays, but Pistol does. Marx and his show directors retorted that while Falstaff does not appear in the flesh in Henry V, he is there in spirit (Act II, Scene 3).

But sensing some promotion material, Groucho decided to ask five Shakespearean authorities for their opinions, wrote letters to Actors Laurence Olivier, Walter Hampden, Charles Laughton and Critics Brooks Atkinson and Richard Watts. Their replies:

Watts: ". . . Obviously Falstaff was intended as the answer, and I think there is considerable doubt that millions 'the world over' ever found Pistol endearing . . . What is a matter of fact is that he is 'a cowardly braggart' and that he does possess 'good humor' and 'some wit,' and certainly appears in all the required plays. So it seems to me the Pistol couple have you."

Atkinson: ". . . I certainly would have answered 'Falstaff.'

Hampden: "I must judge you wrong in saying a character can appear in a play without making an appearance on stage . . . The question was wrongly put, hence confusing because it included an error. The answer was half right because Pistol is a cowardly braggart. The true answer . . . is that there is no such character. I suggest the show bear the penalty of its error and give the young couple $500 for a correct answer to half the question."

Laughton: "This has long been one of the argumentative points in Shakespearean literature . . . In my opinion, the correct answer would have been Falstaff."

Olivier: "The fact . . . is that you said 'There appeared a cowardly braggart, etc.,' and I am afraid those first two words make things awkward for you. You didn't say 'in spirit' or anything like that. You said 'there appeared.' Of course, you were thinking of the film (Olivier's Henry V), and I can hardly blame you for that, can I? Otherwise, believe me, this would hurt me as much as it does you . . ."

Having lost by a 3-2 vote, Groucho and sponsors decided to award the couple the full $1,000, have already found a Shakespearean quotation for the occasion: "I am a man whom fortune hath cruelly scratched."*

All's Well That Ends Well, Act V, Scene 2.

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