Henry IV, Part 1

The Renaissance marked a resurgence of interest in Roman and Greek mythology. Newly translated works of Ovid, Plautus, Homer, and other classical authors had a great impact on Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Renaissance literature, poetry, and drama were richly adorned with classical imagery and allusions to the extent that they eventually became cliché.

Shakespeare uses Roman deities as a motif to enrich the themes of Henry IV, Part 1. For example, Falstaff, planning to rob the pilgrims, says, “Let us be Diana’s / foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the / moon, and let men say we be men of good government, / being governed, as the sea is, by our noble / and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal” (1.2.26-31). Diana was the virgin Roman goddess of hunting, and this invocation lends an ironic tone of chastity or purity to the thieves’ actions. Diana is also associated with the moon, which moves the sea. Falstaff’s allusion to Diana and the moon implies the thieves are guided by a higher power, ennobling their actions while absolving them of culpability and illustrating