1965, Norman Holland: "We can see the difference in the Falstaffs of the two parts. … This mocking of tradition places him in the tradition of the deceptive Vice of the morality plays … But in 1 Henry IV Falstaff seems more triumphant: the Chaplinesque clown … In 2 Henry IV Falstaff … becomes the slain god, the Lord of Misrule" (Holland lxxvii)).
1986, Northrop Frye: "2 Henry IV follows the same general outline as the first part; but it soon becomes clear that the Eastcheap group is heading for rapid disintegration…. [Falstaff] is accustomed to feel that it doesn't matter what he does if his evasions afterward are sufficiently amusing, but such techniques do not work with the Chief Justice, nor with Prince Henry's younger brother John, who has about as much humour as the horse he rides on. Falstaff, in short, is beginning to feel the strain of a professional jester whose jokes no longer go over, apart from the fact that he does not stop with jokes" (Frye, On Shakespeare 79-80).
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Obviously, this list is extremely limited and severely edited. A few hundred pages, rather than a mere few pages, is actually called for. Still, the list here does serve several purposes: (1) it indicates the complexity and richness of Shakespeare's creation, such complexity thus making it extremely difficult if not impossible for critics to reach any consistent conclusion or consensus − and perhaps impossible for