His grossly inflamed nose and constantly flushed, carbuncle-covered face is a repeated subject for Falstaff's and Prince Hal's comic insults and word-play.

Though his role in each play is minor, he often adds comic relief, and helps illustrate the personality change in Henry from Prince to King.

[1] In early published versions of Henry IV, Part 1, the character is called Rossill or Sir John Russel.

Shakespeare renamed the character to avoid suggestions that he was ridiculing the then-prominent Russell family, which included the Earls of Bedford.

Bardolph appears in The Merry Wives of Windsor as one of Falstaff's associates along with Nym and Pistol again, though his role is minor.

Later, Bardolph is dismissed by Falstaff because of his inadequate thieving skills ("his filching was like an unskilful singer; he kept not time.")

According to René Weis, "In the context of the play's opposing a crumbling main plot in its final throes to an equally collapsing low plot, the two Bardolphs pose similar threats to the welfare of the kingdom, through high treason and corruption of the heir to the throne respectively.

This recalls a scene in Famous Victories when Hal assaults the Lord Chief Justice for arresting and intending to hang Cutter for theft.

Bardolph's distinguishing feature, his inflamed nose ("that salamander of yours"), has led to some debate, and has affected the way the character is portrayed in productions.

However, Fluellen's reference to Bardolph's whole face being covered with abnormal growths suggests an extensive skin condition.

[16] George Daniel's Merrie England in the Olden Time includes a verse with the line "Here honest Sir John took his ease at his inn / Bardolph's proboscis, and Jack's double chin.

"[17] In 1831, a humorous article on the "Genius and Poetry of the Nose" in Edward Moxon's The Englishman's Magazine stated that "the celebrity of Bardolph's nose will endure as long as the name of the mighty bard himself", going on to complain that scholars had not devoted effort to the "erudite illustration and exposition of Bardolph's extraordinary feature".

Bardolph's supposed coat of arms is "a bottle gules, on an oak table proper, with a corkscrew trenchant, supported by thirst rampant".

His family were originally wealthy burghers from the Netherlands, but were shamed when a gypsy curse led his grandmother to give birth to a pig-faced child.

They kept the child secret, but when she reached adulthood, they moved to England to consult Roger Bacon, who informed them that only vigorous sex would cure their daughter's facial deformity.

She gave birth to Bardolph, but her husband killed himself when, as a side-effect of the cure, his penis shrank to the size and shape of a pig's tail.

Bardolph comments on various events, factions, and characters in Jason Sholtis's Dungeons & Dragons adventure Operation Unfathomable.