Page:Henry IV Part 2 (1921) Yale.djvu/148

136  Helicon was the abode of the Muses. Pistol resents having such low fellows as Robin Hood and his men brought into this very grandiloquent literary conversation.

 Pistol quotes two Latin phrases which have no significance here, and then proceeds to mistranslate them. The Latin means literally: it is always the same, for without this there is nothing.

 Shakespeare's authorship of this epilogue has been questioned. The dancer says it is of his own making, but he speaks for the author in promising a continuation of the play and in assuring the audience that Falstaff is not Sir John Oldcastle (cf. note on III. ii. 28, 29, and Appendix C 3 to 1 Henry IV, in the present edition). It is interesting to note that Shakespeare's original intention was to continue the Falstaff plot through the play of Henry V; but, as Coleridge remarks, 'Agincourt is not the place for the splendid mendacity of Falstaff. With the coronation of Henry V opens a new period of glorious enthusiasm and patriotic fervor. There is no longer any place for Falstaff on earth; he must find refuge in "Arthur's bosom."'

 pray for the queen. It was the custom to end plays with a prayer for the sovereign. This custom originated in the interludes.