Shakespeare\u2019s Merry Wives of Windsor Commentary A. Drake<\/title><meta name= \"description\" content= \"Merry Wives of Windsor commentary addresses major themes, major characters such as Falstaff, Mistress Ford, Mistress Page, literary analysis, drama theory.\"><\/head><\/p>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Commentaries on Shakespeare’s Comedies<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-btn__default-btn uagb-btn-tablet__default-btn uagb-btn-mobile__default-btn uagb-block-4f6cdd05 uag-hide-mob\"><div class=\"uagb-buttons__wrap uagb-buttons-layout-wrap \">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-dcba7b2a wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">HOME<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div 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target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">GUIDES<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-d5da63d7 wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/shakespeare-links\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">LINKS<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-btn__default-btn uagb-btn-tablet__default-btn uagb-btn-mobile__default-btn uagb-block-19d28286\"><div class=\"uagb-buttons__wrap uagb-buttons-layout-wrap \">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-69502be5 wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"#act1\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">ACT 1<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-0ec42142 wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"#act2\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">ACT 2<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-6ac70dcb wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"#act3\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">ACT 3<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-bfd6ecc9 wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"#act4\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">ACT 4<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-55716ff6 wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"#act5\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">ACT 5<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-0246bad9 wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"#endnotes\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">ENDNOTES<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nShakespeare, William. The Merry Wives of Windsor.<\/em> Folio. (The Norton Shakespeare: Comedies,<\/em> 3rd ed. 602-59.)<\/p>\n\n\n\nOf Interest:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rsc.org.uk\/the-merry-wives-of-windsor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">RSC Resources<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/internetshakespeare.uvic.ca\/Library\/Texts\/Wiv\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ISE Resources<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shakespeare-online.com\/sources\/merrysources.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">S-O Sources<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.folger.edu\/explore\/shakespeare-in-print\/first-folio\/bookreader-68\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1623 Folio 59-80 (Folger)<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/name.umdl.umich.edu\/A13377.0001.001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tarlton\u2019s Newes Out of Purgatorie,<\/em> \u201cTwo Lovers \u2026\u201d<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/name.umdl.umich.edu\/A68653.0001.001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Riche His Farewell to Militarie Profession,<\/em> \u201cOf Two Bretheren and Their Wives\u201d<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/name.umdl.umich.edu\/A08649.0001.001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ovid\u2019s Metamorphoses, <\/em>Bk. III.138-252 \u201cActaeon\u201d (Golding, 1567)<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=2pFTAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">England as Seen by Foreigners,<\/em> \u201cDuke of Wirtemberg\u201d 4-49 (trans. W. B. Rye, 1865)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"act1\">ACT 1<\/h3>\n\n\n\nAct 1, Scene 1 (602-08, Justice Shallow, his nephew Master Slender, and Sir Hugh the parson walk to the Page residence; Shallow accuses Sir John Falstaff of poaching his deer and other offenses; Slender, for his part, complains that Bardolph, Pistol, or Nim\u2014he was too drunk to know which\u2014robbed his purse; Falstaff brazenly defies Shallow, and his men defy Slender; Falstaff greets Mistress Ford and Mistress Page; Master Ford invites the men to dinner in hopes of reconciling them; Slender receives advice from Sir Hugh and Shallow on how to court Anne, but he proves inept.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe play begins on an angry note, with Justice Shallow threatening to make his allegations against Sir John Falstaff a matter for the Star Chamber. <a href=\"#_edn1\" id=\"_ednref1\">[1]<\/a> The Welshman Sir Hugh Evans, evidently a man of the Church, <a href=\"#_edn2\" id=\"_ednref2\">[2]<\/a> offers his help in reconciling the two men, but that talk is interrupted by Evans\u2019s mention of young Anne Page, whom he considers a catch for Shallow\u2019s nephew, Master Slender. It seems that the girl\u2019s grandfather left her 700 \u00a3 (north of one million US dollars in 2025), <a href=\"#_edn3\" id=\"_ednref3\">[3]<\/a> and her father is likely to leave her much more when he dies.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen the talk turns back to Shallow\u2019s sense of outrage against Falstaff, the former soon gets his chance to air his grievances to Sir John\u2019s face when the latter comes to greet the men. The charges? \u201cKnight, you have beaten my men, killed my deer, \/ and broke open my lodge\u201d (604, 1.1.95-96). This is by no means a trivial accusation since poaching animals for hunting was a recognized offense. <a href=\"#_edn4\" id=\"_ednref4\">[4]<\/a> Falstaff, however, is unfazed by it, and by the person who has leveled it against him, saying brazenly, \u201cI have done all this. That \/ is now answered\u201d (604, 1.1.99-100).<\/p>\n\n\n\nSlender was evidently one of the men whom Falstaff pummeled, and he advances his complaint against the knight as well as against his unsavory associates Bardolph, Nim, and Pistol. The complaint concerns his stolen purse, which contained some petty cash. The end of this complaint is that Slender vows never again to get drunk around men of low character. He is too timid to do more than natter angrily against his wrongers: \u201cIf I be drunk, I\u2019ll be drunk \/ with those that have the fear of god, and not with drunken knaves\u201d (606, 1.1.157-59).<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen Mistress Ford and Mistress Page come out of the house with Anne, the men\u2019s machinations on behalf of Slender begin in earnest. As for the comically inept and bashful young man himself, he feels exposed without his copy of love poetry to use as courtship fodder. He has forgotten to bring it along, for he says, \u201cI had rather than forty shillings I had my book of \/ songs and sonnets here\u201d (606, 1.1.171-72).<\/p>\n\n\n\nSlender soon reveals that he is far worse than inept: he is the most pathetic scarecrow of a man that a provincial woman might marry. <a href=\"#_edn5\" id=\"_ednref5\">[5]<\/a> He is not interested in anything resembling true romance. For him, marriage is strictly a financial and class-based arrangement. As he says to his uncle Shallow, \u201cI will marry her, sir, at your request. But if there be \/ no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it \/ upon better acquaintance, when we are married and have \/ more occasion to know one another\u201d (607, 1.1.214-17).<\/p>\n\n\n\nEven when we correct Slender\u2019s ignorant substitution of \u201cdecrease\u201d for \u201cincrease,\u201d this is a remarkably barren, formal way for a young man to talk about his potentially impending marriage to a charming young woman. <a href=\"#_edn6\" id=\"_ednref6\">[6]<\/a> Not surprisingly, Anne has the greatest difficulty even getting this \u201crespectable,\u201d dowry-dowsing nonentity to come into the Page residence for dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 1, Scene 2 (608, Sir Hugh tells Slender\u2019s man Simple to bring a letter to Dr. Caius\u2019s servant Mistress Quickly requesting her assistance in Slender\u2019s pursuit of Anne Page.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSir Hugh hurries Slender\u2019s man Simple off with a letter for Mistress Quickly, servant of the Frenchman Dr. Caius, seeking her assistance in Slender\u2019s wooing of Anne Page. The hope is that she will act as a go-between for the shy young man and his as-yet unsuspecting love interest. <a href=\"#_edn7\" id=\"_ednref7\">[7]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 1, Scene 3 (609-11, Falstaff\u2019s sinking finances leads him to offload his servant Bardolph to the Host of the Garter Inn, who hires the old thief as his tapster; Falstaff reveals to Pistol and Nim his intention to seduce Mistresses Ford and Page and fleece their wealthy husbands; when Pistol and Nim take offense at being asked to serve as go-betweens, Falstaff angrily lets them go from his service; Pistol and Nim hit upon a way to get their revenge: they will \u201cout\u201d Falstaff to Masters Ford and Page.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nFalstaff, running low on money, first palms off Bardolph to the jolly Host of the Garter Inn, who hires the spent associate as a tapster. He then explains to his remaining hangers-on, Pistol and Nim, <a href=\"#_edn8\" id=\"_ednref8\">[8]<\/a> the romantic con he plans to put into effect against the Pages and the Fords: the two ladies, he thinks, are easy marks, and they control the purse-strings in their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOf Mistress Ford, Falstaff says in recollection of her manner while serving him and others dinner recently, \u201cI spy enter- \/ tainment in her. She discourses, she carves, she gives the \/ leer of invitation\u201d (609, 1.3.37-39). The trouble is, his solicitation of Pistol and Nim as bearers of the letters he has written to the two ladies offends both men, and at the conclusion of a brief argument about soldierly honor and independence, Falstaff turns them loose, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMuch of what Falstaff says about Mistresses Ford and Page in this scene comes across as cold, even cruel. Of Mistress Page, for example, he says \u201cShe is a region in Guiana, all \/ gold and bounty. I will be cheaters to them both, and they \/ shall be exchequers to me. They shall be my East and West \/ Indies, and I will trade to them both\u201d (610, 1.3.58-61). Erotic imperialism, we might call such talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHere there is no hint of the warmth or humanity of the Falstaff in the Henry IV <\/em>plays: this Sir John comes across as altogether a hard, calculating man. His failing finances bring out the worst in him. His comments about a pair of friendly, respectable provincial women and their husbands betrays the sharp, pitiless observational powers of a predator. In this play, Falstaff\u2019s words and conduct are alike alienating. <a href=\"#_edn9\" id=\"_ednref9\">[9]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nPistol and Nim certainly read Sir John\u2019s words that way. Stung by Falstaff\u2019s patronizing, almost contemptuous treatment of them, they hit upon a perfect way to achieve their revenge: Nim says he will expose Falstaff\u2019s plan to Master Ford, while Pistol vows to out the wily knight to Master Page.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 1, Scene 4 (611-14, Peter Simple delivers Sir Hugh\u2019s letter asking Mistress Quickly for help in Slender\u2019s wooing of Anne Page, but the temperamental Dr. Caius almost immediately catches the concealed Simple in his house; Caius, who covets Anne for himself, becomes enraged with Sir Hugh and issues a written challenge to the meddling parson for helping Slender, and tasks Simple with delivering the challenge; the third of Anne\u2019s suitors, Fenton, drops by and pays Mistress Quickly to help him<\/em> win Anne\u2019s heart.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nDr. Caius\u2019s housekeeper, Mistress Quickly, susses out what sort of fellow Master Slender might be since she now knows from Sir Hugh\u2019s letter (as conveyed by Peter Simple) that Slender seeks assistance in wooing Anne Page. But the first order of the moment is to hide Simple when it becomes clear that the irascible Caius is about to enter. Even so, the Doctor soon discovers that Simple is in his home. The upshot is that Caius uses Simple to send back a challenge to Sir Hugh for daring to help another man pay suit to Anne, whom he (Caius) covets.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNo sooner does Caius leave than Fenton, another of Anne\u2019s suitors and of more impressive lineage than either Slender or Caius, shows up to ask for Mistress Quickly\u2019s help with Anne. She promises to assist, but when Fenton departs, she admits that she doesn\u2019t think much of his prospects: \u201cTruly an honest gentleman. But Anne loves him not. For I \/ know Anne\u2019s mind as well as another does\u201d (614, 1.4.146-47). Whether that\u2019s true or not, Mistress Quickly is a vital intelligencer and go-between in this play. <a href=\"#_edn10\" id=\"_ednref10\">[10]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"act2\">ACT 2<\/h3>\n\n\n\nAct 2, Scene 1 (614-19, Mistresses Page and Ford read through the identical love-letters sent to them by Falstaff, and vow to take revenge; Pistol and Nim tattle on Falstaff to Masters Ford and Page; the two women begin to shape their revenge-plot, and they choose Mistress Quickly as their assistant in the matter; the two husbands discuss how to process what they have learned, with Page expressing nonchalance and Ford giving reign to his characteristic jealousy\u2014he will disguise himself and test Falstaff; the Host, Shallow, and Page go to look for the feuding Sir Hugh and Dr. Caius.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nMistress Page and Mistress Ford have both received a scandalous love-letter from Sir John Falstaff, and what\u2019s more scandalous still, when the two women sit down to compare the letters, both are the same. The lazy knight has sent them a form letter! Whatever the Early Modern equivalent for the figure \u201cphoning it in\u201d is, that would be the one to use for such a paltry effort. Mistress Page, even before meeting up with Mistress Ford, is determined to get her revenge on Falstaff \u201cas sure as his guts are made of \/ puddings!\u201d (615, 2.1.26-27)<\/p>\n\n\n\nMistress Ford, for her part, is equally bemused and annoyed, saying hilariously to Mistress Page, \u201cWhat tempest, I trow, threw this whale, \/ with so many tuns of oil in his belly, ashore at Windsor?\u201d <a href=\"#_edn11\" id=\"_ednref11\">[11]<\/a> And she says further, \u201cHow shall I be revenged on him? I think the best way \/ were to entertain him with hope till the wicked fire of lust \/ have melted him in his own grease\u201d (615, 2.1.56-60)<\/p>\n\n\n\nA deal of sexual innuendo leavens the two women\u2019s contempt for Falstaff, as when Mistress Page, half-questioning her own proper self-presentation to men because of the knight\u2019s absurd brazenness in having \u201cboarded\u201d (616, 2.1.80) her, is answered by Mistress Ford\u2019s quick response, \u201cBoarding, call you it? I\u2019ll be sure to keep him above deck\u201d (616, 2.1.81-82). But in truth, both women seem very secure in their reputations for perfect virtue or married chastity, and this security allows them to turn towards concrete plans for taking revenge on the fool who has dared to try to seduce them.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat is to be done? Mistress Page has it: \u201cLet\u2019s appoint \/ him a meeting, give him a show of comfort in his suit, and \/ lead him on with a fine-baited delay, till he hath pawned \/ his horses to mine Host of the Garter\u201d (616, 2.1.84-87). This is not exactly what happens, but it gives us some indication of the two women\u2019s thinking: the aim will be to expose and humiliate the arrogant form-letter scribbler and false suitor Falstaff. The knight will get his punishment, we can be sure, in a manner that Prince Hal himself would find entirely appropriate. <a href=\"#_edn12\" id=\"_ednref12\">[12]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nJust as the Mistresses resolve on their revenge, up come Masters Ford and Page, respectively in conversation with Pistol and Nim. The latter two men separately tattle Falstaff\u2019s wicked plan to the two husbands. While Page is incredulous and instantly distrusts the word-mangler Nim, Ford, who is apparently jealous by nature, is determined to get to the bottom of things. Pistol is more skilled than his colleague as a sower of doubt, sprinkling literate barbs at Master Ford like the following: \u201cPrevent\u2014 \/ Or go thou like Sir Actaeon, \/ He, with Ringwood at thy heels\u201d (616, 2.1.106-08).<\/p>\n\n\n\nUpon seeing Mistress Quickly approach, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page both decide that she would be the best assistant in their plotting against Falstaff, or, as Mistress Page puts it, \u201cour messenger to this paltry knight\u201d (617, 2.1.142).<\/p>\n\n\n\nMeanwhile, Masters Page and Ford air their differences with respect to how to process jealousy. Page is nonchalant about it, and says of Falstaff, \u201cIf he should intend this voyage \/ toward my wife, I would turn her loose to him \u2026,\u201d and he is all but certain that the knight would get nothing but \u201csharp words\u201d for his efforts (618, 2.1.163-65). Master Ford, by contrast, considers that while he has no reason to doubt his own wife, \u201cA man may be too confident\u201d (618, 2.1.167).<\/p>\n\n\n\nShallow and the merry Host of the Garter Inn invite Page along with them to see the supposedly expected duel between Sir Hugh and Dr. Caius over Anne. They three march off dutifully, while Ford remains behind to sound his own thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen thus alone, Ford ponders the matter of Falstaff more deeply: his wife, he says, \u201cwas in his [Falstaff\u2019s] company at Page\u2019s house, and what they made \/ there, I know not. Well, I will look further into\u2019t, and I have a \/ disguise to sound Falstaff. If I find her honest, I lose not my \/ labor. If she be otherwise, \u2018tis labor well bestowed\u201d (619, 2.1.205-08). In due time, Master Ford may find that labor so expended can entail some unexpected consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 2, Scene 2 (619-24, Falstaff argues with Pistol over the latter\u2019s request for a loan; Mistress Quickly brings news that Mistresses Ford and Page have responded positively to his love-letters, and the first-mentioned has even offered him a meeting time; Master Ford, disguised as \u201cBroom,\u201d goes to visit Falstaff at his lodgings in the Garter and offers him money to seduce Mistress Ford, of whom he claims to be an unsuccessful suitor; alone, Ford is certain that his wife intends to cheat on him with Falstaff, so he plans to catch them in the act.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nPistol and Falstaff quarrel bitterly over the latter\u2019s refusal to lend Pistol a small sum, and indirectly over Pistol\u2019s earlier refusal to deliver the knight\u2019s love-letter. Falstaff betrays considerable anxiety about his straitened circumstances, <a href=\"#_edn13\" id=\"_ednref13\">[13]<\/a> belting out, \u201cit is as much as I can do to keep the terms of my \/ honor precise. Ay, ay, I myself sometimes, leaving the fear of \/ heaven on the left hand and hiding mine honor in my neces- \/ sity, am fain to shuffle, to hedge, and to lurch \u2026\u201d (619, 2.2.18-21). Pistol relents, but further damage has been done to their association.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn steps Mistress Quickly with news from Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, and though it takes her a while to get to the point, she tells Falstaff exactly what he wants to hear: as for Mistress Ford, she has allegedly had many high-class suitors, none of whom produced the profound effect that Sir John has had upon her. In short, the news is that \u201cher husband will be absence from his house between ten and eleven\u201d (620, 2.2.75-76). Mistress Page finds it a bit harder to meet with Falstaff, says Mistress Quickly, but she fervently hopes that a meeting can be arranged soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMistress Quickly no doubt lays it on thickly with regard to the two women\u2019s supposed otherworldly honesty and virtue (and their alleged failed suitors), the better to inflate Falstaff\u2019s already ample ego and make him take still more pleasure in the piece of wickedness he has set in motion. She may not yet understand that in Falstaff\u2019s case, the escapade he has planned has more to do with his urgent need for money than with even \u201cthe joy of sex,\u201d leaving genuine romance quite aside. For Sir John, as we would say, \u201cit\u2019s all about the Benjamins.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nPistol eggs Falstaff on, and Falstaff, seeming a bit dubious of his success, verbally pats himself on the back for still being charming enough to pull off such a caper with two such attractive, respectable ladies. Just then, Bardolph announces that \u201cone Master Broom\u201d (621, 2.2.128) desires to make his acquaintance.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis Master Broom is, of course, Master Ford come to put Falstaff to the test. He offers Falstaff a round sum of money and lays out a tale claiming that he has long loved and pursued the wonderful Mistress Ford, buying her gifts galore and following her around endlessly. All he has for his efforts, he laments, is a sad (and slightly syntactically challenging) bit of wisdom: \u201cLove like a shadow flies, when substance Love pursues, \/ Pursuing that that flies, and flying what pursues\u201d (623, 2.2.185-86).<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat\u2019s the goal? If Sir John can successfully seduce Mistress Ford, this supposed Master Broom suggests, perhaps he himself will finally enjoy a victory over her once the lady has been deprived of her usual standing upon honor: as he says to Sir John, \u201cI could drive her then from the ward of her purity, \/ her reputation, her marriage vow, and a thousand other her \/ defenses, which now are too strongly embattled against \/ me\u201d (623, 2.2.220-23). Master Broom is essentially suggesting that if Falstaff can bed Mistress Ford, he, \u201cBroom,\u201d can blackmail or shame her into submitting to his desire.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFalstaff\u2019s ego is flattered by all this, and he rashly promises Ford-as-Broom, \u201cI shall be with her\u201d (624, 2.2.232). When Ford-as-Broom asks him, \u201cDo you know Ford, \/ sir?\u201d Falstaff lets fly with an unflattering summation. He doesn\u2019t really know the man, he says, but proclaims that the fellow is wealthy, and that only for that reason does he consider his wife attractive. \u201cI will use her,\u201d says Sir John, \u201cas the key of the cuckoldly \/ rogue\u2019s coffer, and there\u2019s my harvest-home\u201d (624, 2.2.243-44). It\u2019s hard to miss the class-based contempt that Falstaff, a knight, betrays for this wealthy but ordinary citizen. <a href=\"#_edn14\" id=\"_ednref14\">[14]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAlone, Master Ford marvels at the cheekiness of this man Falstaff, this \u201cepicurean rascal\u201d (624, 2.2.255), <a href=\"#_edn15\" id=\"_ednref15\">[15]<\/a> and this marveling leads him to a dark place: \u201cMy wife hath sent to him, the hour is fixed, the \/ match is made. Would any man have thought this? See the \/ hell of having a false woman!\u201d (624, 2.2.257-59) Ford imagines plenty of bad things, but the worst thing is to be called \u201ccuckold.\u201d <a href=\"#_edn16\" id=\"_ednref16\">[16]<\/a> What will he do? Says he, \u201cI will prevent this, detect my wife, be \/ revenged on Falstaff, and laugh at Page \u2026\u201d (624, 2.2.274-75).<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe overall tone of this scene is comic, of course, with Master Ford\u2019s concluding words in it being, \u201cFie, fie, fie! Cuck- \/ old, cuckold, cuckold\u201d (624, 2.2.276-77). It is a good thing that Master Ford is an ordinary bourgeois citizen who dwells in a comic universe, though, or we might detect just a hint of that obsessed romantic absolutist, Othello. But that kind of passion and imagination are beyond Master Ford. It is bad enough that he takes Falstaff\u2019s perfidy as proof of his own wife\u2019s dishonesty, but at least the worst doesn\u2019t come of this error.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 2, Scene 3 (625-26, when Sir Hugh Evans doesn\u2019t show up for the duel with Dr. Caius, the latter becomes enraged and has to be talked down by the Host of the Garter, who promises to lead him to his love interest, Anne Page.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nDr. Caius is waiting in Windsor Park for Sir Hugh to arrive for their fateful duel, but the latter is a no-show, and the doctor is very angry about it. A lot of comical hyper-masculine rhetoric issues from his mouth, but none of it amounts to much. Even old Justice Shallow, it seems, claims he has a martial past to boast of. As he says, \u201cThough we are justices, and doctors, and churchmen, \/ Master Page, we have some salt of our youth in us. We are \/ the sons of women, Master Page\u201d (625, 2.3.41-43). <a href=\"#_edn17\" id=\"_ednref17\">[17]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nWith Caius still raging, the Host steps in and mercifully puts an end to the scene, promising him, \u201cGo about the fields with me through Frogmore. \/ I will bring thee where Mistress Anne Page is, at a farmhouse \/ a-feasting, and thou shalt woo her. Cried game!\u201d (626, 2.3.75-77) That is good enough for Dr. Caius, and he agrees to go along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"act3\">ACT 3<\/h3>\n\n\n\nAct 3, Scene 1 (626-29, Sir Hugh, though frightened, still expects to carry on with his duel against Dr. Caius, and he is accompanied by Page, Shallow, and Slender; the Host brings Sir Hugh and Caius together, and admits that he has kept them apart for their own safety; the two men reconcile, but their bond is a mutual determination to take revenge on the Host for tricking them.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn Windsor Park, Sir Hugh, singing a song anachronistically based on a poem by Christopher Marlowe, <a href=\"#_edn18\" id=\"_ednref18\">[18]<\/a> encounters several other characters, including his nemesis, Dr. Caius. The latter puts out noises about how determined he is to destroy Sir Hugh, who for his part seems frightened out of his wits. Shallow wants to bring Caius home, but the Host has a different, complementary plan: he brings the doctor and the parson together, flatters them, and admits that it is he who has been keeping them apart so they would not come to any harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAfter some comical puffery on their part, both Sir Hugh and Dr. Caius prove more than willing to reconcile, though in a way that doesn\u2019t exactly flatter the Host\u2019s Solon-like vision of his efforts. Whereas the Host puts great faith in his peacemaking skills, Sir Hugh and Dr. Caius actually bond over their antipathy towards the Host for deceiving them all this time: as Evans says, \u201clet us knog our prains \/ together to be revenge on this same scall, scurvy, cogging \/ companion, the Host of the Garter\u201d (629, 3.1.102-04). Caius agrees, and that\u2019s that.<\/p>\n\n\n\nJustice Shallow\u2019s remarks before the Host steps in are instructive: Shallow sees some loss in Dr. Caius\u2019s standing from this ridiculous quarrel. This kind of observation shows the operations of class-based ethical expectations. Such expectations of respectable behavior seem largely to set up a fence around potentially damaging and embarrassing conduct, thereby helping to maintain peaceful norms in provincial Windsor.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 3, Scene 2 (629-31, Ford meets Mistress Page on her way to visit Mistress Ford, and feels certain that both women are up to mischief, and just as certain that he will win praise for exposing them along with Falstaff; he invites several men to accompany him home, where he expects to catch his wife committing adultery with Falstaff; meanwhile, Master Page tells Shallow that he favors Slender as a husband for Anne, while his wife prefers Dr. Caius.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nFord meets Mistress Page with Falstaff\u2019s boy servant Robin on the way to the Ford residence to meet with Mistress Ford. Master Ford is jealous even of the two women\u2019s friendship since he says, \u201cI think if your husbands were dead, you two would \/ marry,\u201d which the lady parries with, \u201cBe sure of that\u2014two other husbands\u201d (629, 3.2.11-13).<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen he is out of earshot, Ford airs his certainty that both his wife and Mistress Page are up to no good. His aim now, he says, is to expose the lot of them: \u201cWell, I will take him [Falstaff], then \/ torture my wife, pluck the borrowed veil of modesty from \/ the so-seeming Mistress Page, divulge Page himself for a \/ secure and willful Actaeon, and to these violent proceed- \/ ings all my neighbors shall cry aim\u201d (630, 3.2.34-38). Above all, Ford is sure that his stock in the community will rise, not sink, when he turns his almost violent fantasies into reality. <a href=\"#_edn19\" id=\"_ednref19\">[19]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nMaster Ford is so eager to carry out his plan that he can hardly wait. When Page, Shallow, Slender, the Host, Evans, Caius, and Rugby greet him (as he seems to have arranged), he invites them to follow him home, where he expects to find his wife and Falstaff, to borrow a line from Hamlet, \u201choneying and making love \/ Over the nasty stye.\u201d <a href=\"#_edn20\" id=\"_ednref20\">[20]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nMeantime, when Master Page is asked by Justice Shallow whether he favors Slender as a suitor to his daughter Anne, he receives the positive answer he wants, along with the less welcome report that his wife prefers Dr. Caius. The Host of the Garter Inn asks Page what he thinks of Fenton, and Page says the young man is not to his liking. Why? Well, says Page, he has no property and too high a rank and sense of courtliness. Worse yet, \u201che kept company with the wild prince and Poins\u201d (630, 3.2.64). <a href=\"#_edn21\" id=\"_ednref21\">[21]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nMaster Ford ends the scene by inviting specifically Dr. Caius, Master Page, and Sir Hugh to his home. Shallow and Slender do not plan to accompany him.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 3, Scene 3 (631-35, Mistresses Ford and Page set their plans in motion; Robin announces Falstaff\u2019s presence at the Ford residence, and Mistress Page says she has spied Master Ford on his way home with friends; Falstaff panics and jumps into the laundry basket the women have prepared; he lies in dirty laundry while the Ford servants carry him to a ditch alongside the Thames; Ford and his companions launch a futile search while the women plan further revenge; the search completed, Ford is crestfallen, invites his associates to dinner so he can explain, and asks everyone for pardon.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nMistress Page and Mistress Ford set everything up in advance of Falstaff\u2019s visit: Robin, Falstaff\u2019s servant, hasn\u2019t informed his master that Mistress Page is lurking in the Ford residence. Likewise, the Ford servants are ready with the big laundry-basket that will be used to hide Falstaff and then to dump him in a \u201cmuddy ditch\u201d (631, 3.3.13) beside the Thames.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFalstaff makes his entrance through the residence\u2019s back door, and he promptly makes a class-based appeal to Mistress Ford\u2019s vanity: \u201cI would make \/ thee my lady\u201d (632, 3.3.42-43). A little more of this talk ensues, when in rushes Mistress Page, duly announced by Robin, and pretending to be extremely flustered. She gasps at her friend that all is undone, her reputation is ruined, and so forth, adding, \u201cYour husband\u2019s coming hither, woman, with \/ all the officers in Windsor, to search for a gentleman that he \/ says is here now in the house \u2026\u201d (633, 3.3.89-91).<\/p>\n\n\n\nMistress Ford issues a mock confession to Mistress Page, and together, the two of them put on a scene that might as well be a farcical lazzo <\/em>(slapstick skit) straight out of the Italian commedia dell\u2019arte: <\/em>their chaotic running around and talking frightens the cowardly Falstaff out of his wits. Into the foul-smelling, nearly full laundry basket he goes, and the women give the servants orders to carry the basket all the way to Datchet Mead. <a href=\"#_edn22\" id=\"_ednref22\">[22]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nJust then, in comes Master Ford and his little entourage expecting the thrills of an Elizabethan proto-reality show. He is supremely confident, and tells his wife, \u201cIf I suspect \/ without cause, why then make sport at me \u2026\u201d (633, 3.3.126-27). The great big basket arouses suspicion, but not enough to foil the women\u2019s plot, and with the basket gone, a thorough (and thoroughly ridiculous) search of the premises is made, to no effect. Mistress Ford is enjoying the whole affair: \u201cI know not which pleases me better,\u201d she says, \u201cthat my \/ husband is deceived, or Sir John\u201d (634, 3.3.149-50).<\/p>\n\n\n\nIndeed, Master Ford is at his wits\u2019 end and cuts a most ridiculous figure, and the rogue Sir John has a date with a muddy ditch next to the Thames, tumbled out with the Fords\u2019 dirty laundry. Well done, ladies! Then it occurs to Mistress Ford that they might as well humiliate Sir John yet a second time: they\u2019ll send Mistress Quickly to him with an excuse for his dreadful first experience, and a generous offer for another assignation with Mistress Ford.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMaster Ford is deeply embarrassed, and his friends Sir Hugh and Caius only make him feel worse. Ford asks pardon of all, and invites the men to dinner in a while, when, he says, he will explain why he was so confident in finding his wife unchaste. Sir Hugh and Caius, when they have a moment alone, note that their plan to take revenge against the Host is still on.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 3, Scene 4 (635-37, Fenton returns to woo Anne Page, but is interrupted first by Slender with his uncle, Justice Shallow, and then by Master Page, who tries to run him off the premises; finally, Fenton tries to sweet-talk Mistress Page and win her favor, but the latter promises only\u2014probably just to placate him\u2014to remain neutral until she questions Anne on the matter; Mistress Quickly is engaged to help all three of Anne\u2019s suitors, aside from her work as go-between for Mistresses Ford and Page with Falstaff.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nFenton, again wooing Anne, admits that at first it was her father\u2019s wealth that drew his attention to her, but swears that now things are otherwise, saying, \u201cI found thee of more value \/ Than stamps in gold or sums in seal\u00e8d bags, \/ And \u2018tis the very riches of thyself \/ That now I aim at\u201d (635, 3.4.15-18). Anne encourages her most ardent suitor to keep seeking her father\u2019s approval, which he has already tried, but failed, to win.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNext up is Slender, with Shallow at his side, at first doing all the work for him. Anne\u2019s distaste for this fellow is evident from her words: \u201cOh, what a world of vile ill-favored faults \/ Looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year!\u201d (636, 3.4.32-33) Equally evident is Slender\u2019s indifference to marriage in general. He confesses as much to Anne: \u201cTruly, for mine own part, I would little or nothing \/ with you. Your father and my uncle hath made motions\u201d (636, 3.4.59-60). There is no risk that Slender will ever be confused with Romeo.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNext, Fenton, again rebuffed by Master Page, tries his luck at winning the favor of Mistress Page. Sounding like a Tudor sonneteer, he declares, \u201cI must advance the colors of my love \/ And not retire\u201d (637, 3.4.78-79). <a href=\"#_edn23\" id=\"_ednref23\">[23]<\/a> Mistress Page prefers Dr. Caius, over whom Anne is approximately as excited as she is over Slender: \u201cI had rather,\u201d she says, \u201cbe set quick i\u2019th\u2019 earth \/ And bowled to death with turnips!\u201d (637, 3.4.83-84) Mistress Page claims that she will remain neutral toward Fenton, and she promises to question her daughter about her affection for him, which she purports to consider the most important thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMistress Quickly ends the scene by pointing out to the audience that she is engaged to help all three of Anne Page\u2019s suitors. Quickly seems to prefer Fenton, though her malapropism \u201cspeciously\u201d for \u201cespecially\u201d makes discerning her preference difficult. Now she is off on another embassy from Mistresses Ford and Page to Sir John Falstaff.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 3, Scene 5 (638-40, Falstaff complains bitterly about the mishap he has suffered during his attempted seduction of Mistress Ford, but promptly accepts another date with the lady; he informs Master Ford\u2014as \u201cBroom\u201d\u2014in detail how badly his first attempt went, and of the new attempt he will make on his behalf. This time, Ford is determined to catch his wife and Falstaff at the residence.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nFalstaff bellyaches to Bardolph about the indignity he has suffered: \u201cHave I lived to be carried in a basket like a barrow of \/ butcher\u2019s offal? And to be thrown in the Thames? Well, if I \/ be served such another trick, I\u2019ll have my brains ta\u2019en out and \/ buttered, and give them to a dog for a New Year\u2019s gift\u201d (638, 3.5.4-7). This sounds considerably worse than, say, being hit in the face with a pie.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut seriously, the passage as a whole has a darker side, with Sir John imagining himself as rotting meat and a water-logged, swollen corpse. There is a real sense of diminution and decay in this iteration of Falstaff: he is altogether a meaner and more desperate version of the cheerful, bawdy, dynamic \u201cPlump Jack\u201d we may know from the Henry IV<\/em>. <a href=\"#_edn24\" id=\"_ednref24\">[24]<\/a> It is not hard to imagine the downhill trajectory from here in The Merry Wives of Windsor <\/em>to Sir John\u2019s sad end in Henry V, <\/em>when, as the Hostess tells her companions, the broken man at last turned \u201ccold as any stone.\u201d <a href=\"#_edn25\" id=\"_ednref25\">[25]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nMistress Quickly soon brings Falstaff around, and he agrees to a second assignation: \u201cWell, I will visit her,\u201d says he, \u201cTell her so, and bid her think \/ what a man is. Let her consider his frailty, and then judge of \/ my merit\u201d (638, 3.5.42-44).<\/p>\n\n\n\nNext, it\u2019s time for Falstaff to meet Ford again as \u201cBroom,\u201d and he is tasked with explaining to him how badly his initial date with Mistress Ford has gone. In so doing, he makes Ford\/Broom realize how close he came actually to catching his mark at the residence: if only he had known about that laundry-basket trick! Sir John describes the whole series of events in nauseating, nostril-offending detail. But in the end, he promises \u201cBroom,\u201d the plot will succeed: \u201cYou shall have her, Master Broom. \/ Master Broom, you shall cuckold Ford\u201d (640, 3.5.117-18).<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis is all a revelation to Master Ford, who, we know, already feared the worst. He all but slaps himself in the face: \u201cHum! Ha! Is this a vision? Is this a dream? Do I sleep? \/ \u2026 There\u2019s a hole \/ made in your best coat, Master Ford. This \u2018tis to be married \u2026\u201d (640, 3.5.119-21). He is indeed awake, though deluded with regard to the virtuous Mistress Ford, and he is determined to catch her and the rascal Falstaff in flagrante delicto, <\/em>or at least the guilty Falstaff in a laundry basket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"act4\">ACT 4<\/h3>\n\n\n\nAct 4, Scene 1 (640-42, at Mistress Page\u2019s request, William, her grammar-school-aged son, is subjected to a pop quiz on his Latin, with an assist of sorts from Mistress Quickly; then it\u2019s off with Mistress Page to the Ford residence.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nBefore going off to Mistress Ford\u2019s home for another bout with Falstaff, Mistress Page asks Sir Hugh to put little William (her son) through his paces as a Latin scholar. She has heard he is a bit slow at his studies, but with help from the supremely ignorant Mistress Quickly and the Welshman Sir Hugh with his heavy accent, the boy does well enough to impress his mother, who, we may presume, knows no Latin. Writing this scene must have greatly amused Shakespeare the onetime schoolboy at Stratford\u2019s William IV Grammar School.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 4, Scene 2 (642-46, Mistresses Ford and Page carry out the second round of Falstaff\u2019s punishment: this time, an attempt is made to smuggle him out of the Ford residence dressed as \u201cthe fat woman of Brentford\u201d; Ford hates this woman, so he beats her when she is hustled downstairs by Mistress Page, and the beating continues even after he chases her off the premises; the women congratulate themselves on a plan well executed, decide to tell their husbands about it, and agree that Falstaff\u2019s humiliations must be capped by public exposure and communal mockery.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe second episode of Falstaff\u2019s punishment takes much the same form as the first, with the only differences lying in the manner of disguise and the more violent abuse to which the knight is subjected. Mistress Page duly arrives at the Ford residence, making it known that the irascible Master Ford is yet again on the march home to search out and destroy his supposedly unfaithful wife and her lover. She describes the state of misogynistic madness that seems to have consumed the jealous husband Ford, who now \u201crails \/ against all married mankind\u201d and \u201ccurses all Eve\u2019s daughters \u2026\u201d (642, 4.2.19-20).<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut what is to be done now that disaster is upon the faithless pair? Master Ford is already on to the laundry basket trick, so that won\u2019t do. All the women profess themselves able to think of is to dress Sir John up in the clothing left at the home by one local character, \u201cthe fat woman of Brentford,\u201d since that\u2019s the only clothing in the house that will fit the rotund knight. Ford hates this woman, and, says Mistress Ford, he \u201cswears she\u2019s a witch\u201d and has forbidden her to visit the premises ever again, on pain of a beating. (644, 4.2.75; see 73-76)<\/p>\n\n\n\nMistress Page is obviously looking forward to the latter stages of this second chastising of Sir John, as she chortles, \u201cWives may be merry and yet honest too. \/ We do not act that often jest and laugh \u2026\u201d (644, 4.2.92-93). It\u2019s the quiet ladies, she suggests, that end up doing most of the \u201ccuckolding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nMaster Ford enters, and he is in an ugly mood, taunting his wife with, \u201cI suspect \/ without cause, mistress, do I?\u201d (644, 4.2.114-15) He orders the laundry basket opened, but has no luck there, so he prepares to search the premises, once again inviting everyone present to take him for a byword and a laughingstock if their efforts should fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\nJust then, down comes Mistress Page with \u201cthe fat woman of Brentford\u201d (aka Sir John Falstaff), and an enraged Ford begins to rail at and beat the figure before him, shouting, \u201cOut \/ of my door, you witch, you rag, you baggage, you polecat, you runion, out, out! I\u2019ll conjure you! I\u2019ll fortune tell you!\u201d (645, 4.2.161-63) Those are the words Falstaff hears as Ford and the other men (Sir Hugh, Page, Caius, and Shallow) chase him out of doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMistress Page and Mistress Ford are delighted at what has just happened\u2014it\u2019s quite a victory for them and a well-deserved punishment for the duplicitous, greedy Falstaff. The question is, says Mistress Ford, \u201cShall we tell our husbands how we have \/ served him?\u201d (646, 4.3.188-89) The answer is a definite \u201cyes.\u201d One more consideration remains: says Mistress Ford, \u201cmethinks there would be no period to the jest should \/ he not be publicly shamed\u201d (646, 4.3.195-96).<\/p>\n\n\n\nMistress Page makes an interesting remark at the scene\u2019s end: \u201cCome, to the forge with it, then shape it! I would not have things cool\u201d (646, 4.2.197-98). This suggests the empowerment felt by both Mistress Page and Mistress Ford: they take ownership of what they call the \u201cjest\u201d they have played against both Falstaff and Ford, both of whom are guilty of seriously disrespecting and abusing them, the one for reasons of his own (lust and financial distress), and the other based on a long misogynist tradition of distrusting female \u201cnature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 4, Scene 3 (646, supposedly, a group of Germans want to hire the Host of the Garter\u2019s horses as part of a trick against the Host for misleading Dr. Caius and Sir Hugh.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSome German guests at the Garter, Bardolph informs the Host, would like to hire his horses. As the Norton footnote #2 on 647 points out, this is part of a trick that, in some longer version of Merry Wives, <\/em>would see Dr. Caius and Sir Hugh getting revenge on the Host for his earlier deception of them regarding their whereabouts while they were feuding. As it is, although the Host does lose his horses, this subplot is not fully developed. <a href=\"#_edn26\" id=\"_ednref26\">[26]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 4, Scene 4 (647-48, Ford apologizes to his wife, for she and Mistress Page have by now acquainted their husbands with their joke on Falstaff; the couples discuss how best to expose and publicly mock Falstaff, and they develop a plan to send him in expectation to Herne the Hunter\u2019s haunted oak in Windsor Forest, and there torment him until he confesses; Master and Mistress Page also work in a bit of personal subterfuge: both separately plan for their favorite suitors\u2014Slender and Caius\u2014to make away with Anne in disguise and marry her.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nFord is abashed after having heard his wife and Mistress Page\u2019s explanation of how they virtuously cozened the cozener Falstaff, and promises to amend his ways. From now on, he tells her, \u201cdo what thou wilt. \/ I rather will suspect the sun with cold \/ Than thee with wantonness\u201d (647, 4.4.5-7). This seems a bit much even to easygoing Master Page, but Ford is cured of his ill opinion of his wife, and that\u2019s what matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRound three of Falstaff\u2019s punishment, by agreement, is to be planned carefully: the men will devise how to \u201cuse\u201d Sir John when they\u2019ve captured him, and the women will take care of the more intellectual side of the joke: they will plan how to get him to the appointed place. That place is borrowed from a frightening legend about Herne the Hunter, \u201csometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest\u201d (647, 4.4.26), a horned spirit who blasts an ancient oak tree and bewitches the cattle nearby every midnight during the wintertime. One can hear the chain affixed to him rattling in the darkness. <a href=\"#_edn27\" id=\"_ednref27\">[27]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nHerne\u2019s oak, then, will be the place of assignation for the Mistresses and their would-be seducer, Falstaff. As he arrives, he will be greeted by children dressed as fairies, goblins, and elves, who will challenge him on why he has come there so late at night. Further, says Ford, \u201ctill he tell the truth, \/ Let the suppos\u00e8d fairies pinch him sound \/ And burn him with their tapers\u201d (648, 4.4.57-59).<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe women now in part take over the function of devising what to do with the captured knight, and it\u2019s a fine plan: when Falstaff finally spills the truth, says Mistress Page, \u201cWe\u2019ll all present ourselves, dishorn the spirit, \/ And mock him home to Windsor\u201d (648, 4.4.59-61). The miserable knight, it seems, will be an object of mirth for the entire community of Windsor.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe last order of business in this scene belongs to a separate interest of Master and Mistress Page: they both mean to help the suitor of their choice spirit their daughter Anne away to an immediate marriage, and put an end to the strain of having this important domestic task still confronting them. As we know, and are again told, Master Page prefers the wealthy but none-too-confident Slender, while his wife\u2019s choice for Anne is the rich and well-connected Dr. Caius\u2014in neither of whom is Anne in the least interested.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 4, Scene 5 (648-51, Bardolph, Sir Hugh, and Caius inform the Host to his extreme discomfort that his supposed German guests have stolen three of his horses; Simple comes in search of \u201cthe wise woman of Brentford\u201d and on a mission from Slender; Mistress Quickly enters with yet another proffer to a demoralized Falstaff, this time a meeting with both <\/em>Mistress Ford and Mistress Page; Falstaff and Quickly take their conversation upstairs.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nPeter Simple has come to the Garter because he has seen Falstaff in disguise as the \u201cwise woman of Brentford\u201d entering the place, and he now wants to question her about the chain he believes Nim stole from him. Approached in his chambers, Falstaff equivocates, saying that indeed that very woman had just been visiting with him, but is now gone. Simple also seeks confirmation that his employer, Slender, will find favor with Anne, which Falstaff wrongly affirms.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBardolph enters yelling something about how Germans made off with the three horses and left him behind in the mud. Dr. Caius and Sir Hugh arrive and confirm that these \u201cGermans\u201d were nothing but crooks, and they have stolen the Host\u2019s horses. The Host, as we can imagine, is beside himself at the loss of these valuable animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFalstaff, alone for a time, sounds thoroughly humiliated and downcast. He worries about his current reputation with the royal court: \u201cIf it should come to the ear of \/ the court how I have been transformed \u2026 \/ \u2026 they would melt \/ me out of my fat, drop by drop, and liquor fishermen\u2019s boots \/ with me\u201d (650, 4.5.78-82). He would be the subject of no end of mockery, and the thought of it almost makes him want to repent: as he says, \u201cWell, if my wind were \/ but long enough, I would repent\u201d (650, 4.5.84-85).<\/p>\n\n\n\nMistress Quickly stops by to invite the disillusioned Falstaff to take a third bite at the apple. She claims that Mistress Ford has been severely beaten for her alleged transgression, and offers further explanation of the situation designed to convince the knight to give seduction one more go\u2014this time, he will be presented with both <\/em>ladies. Falstaff invites Mistress Quickly to his chamber, where the conversation continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 4, Scene 6 (651-52, Fenton contracts with the Host of the Garter to have a vicar waiting at the inn to perform his marriage rites with Anne: she will first deceive her parents by pretending to agree to a marriage with both Slender and Caius, but will instead run away with Fenton during the thick of the nighttime Windsor Forest gathering.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Host is in a terrible mood, having lost his horses to \u201cGermans,\u201d but Fenton offers him a hundred pounds\u2019 worth of gold to set up his wedding to Anne that night. He has thought of everything: Anne has promised both her father and mother that she will assent to marry their chosen suitor, and she agrees to wear the white and green dresses, respectively, by which each suitor shall know her. But she will instead run away with Fenton to the Garter Inn, where the Host will have a Vicar waiting there to marry the happy couple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"act5\">ACT 5<\/h3>\n\n\n\nAct 5, Scene 1 (652, Falstaff agrees with Mistress Quickly to rendezvous with Mistress Ford, but this time also with Mistress Page; when Ford enters as \u201cBroom,\u201d Falstaff promises him a wonderful sight at Herne\u2019s oak that evening.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn Scene 1, Falstaff finally agrees to make one last attempt at seduction, this time with both Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. Mistress Quickly will provide the knight with a \u201cHerne the Hunter\u201d costume, replete with a nice set of horns, with obvious reference to cuckoldry.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMaster Ford soon enters, this time knowing exactly what\u2019s on the menu, and Falstaff invites him to a fateful, fantastic meeting at Herne\u2019s oak this very evening. It\u2019s clear that the knight has added revenge against Ford as a special delicacy, in addition to satisfying his desires for the two ladies. All in all, he promises Broom, \u201cyou shall see wonders\u201d (652, 5.1.11).<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 5, Scene 2 (653, Page and Slender discuss their plans for the latter\u2019s elopement with Anne<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\nPage and Slender, his intended suitor for Anne, work on their plans for the evening. Slender, though generally not the brightest man in the room, has even come up with a verbal password by which he and Anne can recognize each other, but Page shoots the idea down, saying that after all, the girl will be wearing white. It\u2019s now ten o\u2019clock at night, so the game is on.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 5, Scene 3 (653, Dr. Caius affirms to Mistress Page that he is ready to elope with Anne tonight in Windsor Forest; Mistresses Page and Ford carry on with their plot to humiliate Falstaff in the same place.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nMistress Page and Dr. Caius briefly go over their plans for his elopement with Anne. When he leaves, she tells us why she is so insistent on this choice: \u201cBetter a little chiding than a great deal of \/ heartbreak\u201d (653, 5.5.9-10). In other words, she\u2019ll put up with a bit of anger from Master Page rather than see her daughter married to someone who lacks Caius\u2019s advantages.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMistresses Page and Ford confer on the exposure of Falstaff to come, enjoying the certainty that whether or not they manage to scare Falstaff out of his wits, he will be roundly mocked by everyone present. The principle that reigns in Windsor Forest tonight, to put it in Mistress Page\u2019s words, is that \u201cAgainst such lewdsters and their lechery, \/ Those that betray them do no treachery\u201d (653, 5.5.20-21). If there is any magic in this miniature \u201cgreen world,\u201d perhaps that ethical principle or sententia <\/em>describes it: it\u2019s acceptable, even laudable, to deceive a deceiver.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 5, Scene 4 (653, Sir Hugh positions the children dressed as goblins and fairies in a pit specially prepared to hide them until they run out to frighten and torment Falstaff.)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nSir Hugh conducts several children dressed as goblins and fairies to the pit that will conceal them until they sally forth to scare the dickens out of Sir John Falstaff and torment him until he confesses his knavery.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 5, Scene 5 (653-59, Falstaff prays to Jove to bless his efforts as a seducer; Mistresses Ford and Page arrive and sit down on each side of Falstaff, but then run away when horns signal the beginning of the fairy-attack; the fairies and goblins rush in, pinching and tormenting the frightened Falstaff with candle flames; Caius and Slender each make away with the fairy they think is Anne Page, and Fenton runs away with the real Anne; the fairies exit at the sound of hunting, and the Ford and Page couples enter, with Ford mocking the \u201ccuckoldly\u201d knight; \n\t\t\tFalstaff admits his guilt, and Page invites him home to dinner; Caius and Slender return, outraged that their \u201cAnnes\u201d turned out to be disguised boys; Fenton returns with Anne and defends their marriage, thereby gaining the forgiveness and acceptance they desire from Master and Mistress Ford; off the whole group goes to the Page residence for dinner.)<\/span>\n\t\t<\/span><span title='' data-less-title='' data-more-title='' class='yrm-toggle-expand yrm-toggle-expand-1' data-rel='yrm-XFQ1K' data-more='(SYNOPSIS CONTINUES \u2026)' data-less='READ LESS' style='border: none; width: 100%;'>(SYNOPSIS CONTINUES \u2026)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s midnight, and Falstaff sends forth a prayer for success to that arch-seducer Jove (Zeus), pursuer of Europa, Leda, and countless other fair maidens. Thanks to the women who have set him up, he comes dressed in the form of \u201ca Windsor stag, and the fattest, I \/ think, i\u2019th\u2019 forest\u201d (654, 5.5.11-12). Mistresses Page and Ford soon join him, and he is in all his glory just for a moment, with an attractive lady at each side: \u201cDivide me like a bribed buck, each a haunch\u201d (654, 5.5.21), he tells the women.<\/p>\n\n\n\nJust then, horns begin to sound, and Falstaff becomes alarmed. The Mistresses run away in feigned fright, and in rush the whole crew of goblins and fairies (among the latter is Anne Page), with Mistress Quickly as Queen of the Fairies and Sir Hugh as a satyr. The fairies gather to dance around the Herne oak, and throughout the whole spectacle, Falstaff, whose mind is as full of medieval fairy-lore as anyone, is terrified. The fairies, say the stage directions, burn the tips of Falstaff\u2019s fingers with candle-light, and they also pinch him all over his body.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs the fairies sing a song condemning \u201csinful fantasy\u201d and \u201clust and luxury\u201d (656, 5.5.91), Dr. Caius picks out the fairy he believes is Anne, while Slender chooses another, and off they go. Both men are mistaken, though, and Fenton runs away with Anne, whom he knows to be wearing red\u2014not white or green, as the other suitors think.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNext, the stage directions tell us that \u201ca noise of hunting\u201d strikes up, and all the fairies run away. Falstaff takes off his buck\u2019s head, and gets up as the Ford and Page couples arrive along with Justice Shallow. Mistress Page tells her husband not to draw out the jest farther, presumably because Falstaff is embarrassed and scared enough. Master Ford mocks Falstaff, referring to himself as \u201cMaster Broom\u201d and saying, \u201cNow, sir, who\u2019s a cuckold now? Master \/ Broom, Falstaff\u2019s a knave, a cuckoldly knave. \/ Here are his \/ horns \u2026\u201d (656, 5.5.104-06). <a href=\"#_edn28\" id=\"_ednref28\">[28]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nFalstaff now does something that may surprise us: he admits his culpability. To the assembled party, he says he intuited that the fairies were not real, but guilt kept the realization from becoming actualized: \u201cI was three or four times \/ in the thought they were not fairies, and yet the guiltiness of \/ my mind, the sudden surprise of my powers, drove the \/ grossness of the foppery into a received belief \u2026\u201d (657, 5.5.115-18). Sir John is not what today we would call a sociopath\u2014he has a conscience and cannot perfectly control its movements within him.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFalstaff realizes at last that he has been seen through.<\/em> As the excellent Norton footnote #2 on 657 explains, this realization is figured by Sir John\u2019s answer to the Welshman Sir Hugh: \u201cYou have the start of me. I \/ am dejected. I am not able to answer the Welsh flannel. \/ Ignorance itself is a plummet o\u2019er me. Use me as you will\u201d (657, 5.5.149-51).<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Norton note informs us that the word \u201cplummet\u201d is connected as a pun to \u201cplumbet,\u201d which means \u201cwoolen fabric\u201d and is hence a reference to the ignorant fellow Sir Hugh as a kind of \u201cWelsh flannel\u201d covering over Falstaff, who now knows that \u201ceven the ignorant Evans can plumb [\u2026 his] depths, can see his true motives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nMaster Page is in fine fettle, and invites the thoroughly exposed and contrite Falstaff home to dinner, even promising that he\u2019ll get to laugh at Mistress Page because he has secretly married off her daughter to Slender. Mistress Page, in her turn, thinks she will have the last laugh because she believes she has married off Anne to Dr. Caius. But they\u2019re all mistaken, of course, as becomes apparent when both of these men arrive and declare their outrage at having made away not with Anne but with boys in fairy disguise.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFenton settles the upset when he defends his new wife Anne\u2019s decision to elope with him instead of her other two suitors. The deception that has been practiced, he insists, is no act of sinfulness or disobedience, \u201cSince therein she doth evitate and shun \/ A thousand irreligious curs\u00e8d hours \/ Which forc\u00e8d marriage would have brought upon her\u201d (204-06). In other words, deception practiced in the service of marital harmony is fully justified, and in no way blamable.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is no effective argument for Master and Mistress Ford to make against Fenton\u2019s powerful rejection of arranged marriage, which was common in Shakespeare\u2019s time. Presented with a fait accompli, <\/em>both assent to the choice that Anne and Fenton have made for themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPage accedes readily enough, saying graciously, \u201cFenton, heaven give thee joy. What \/ cannot be eschewed must be embraced\u201d (659, 5.5.212-13). Falstaff chalks it up to the power of the night, and completes a rhyme with Page\u2019s line: \u201cWhen night-dogs run, all sorts of deer are chased\u201d (659, 5.5.214). Norton footnote 4 on 659 glosses this as a joke at the expense of the suitors Caius and Slender, which sounds right. We might add to this the implication that love itself is wild, and therefore not easy to control, even by a loving set of parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFinal Reflections on The Merry Wives of Windsor<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe comic essence of this play consists in its following the actions and decisions of two respectable married women joining together in a provincial community to expose and mock a lustful, selfish, and greedy knight, Sir John Falstaff, for his multiple attempts on their virtue and his intention to take their husbands\u2019 money. In true comic spirit, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page accomplish their revenge in a civil way. They follow Hamlet\u2019s advice, \u201cUse every man \/ after his desert and who shall scape whipping?\u201d <a href=\"#_edn29\" id=\"_ednref29\">[29]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the end, Falstaff is welcome at the feast after he has been exposed and mocked for his unwanted advances. The malefactor admits his guilt, and is invited back into the Windsor community, which swallows up the admitted wrongdoing, laundering it in the Thames like Mistress Ford\u2019s soiled linens in the basket that carried Falstaff to his first punishment. From the goings-on in middle-class Windsor, we get a sense of timelessness and contentment. Windsor is pleasant, and the provincials hold steady in the face of assault by high-handed rogues like Falstaff, to which we must add that ever-present destroyer of marriages and perhaps even of broader communities, jealousy, in the person of Master Ford.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe subplot in which Anne Page ends up with the man of her choice, Fenton, adds a deeper romantic touch to the farcical main plot involving Falstaff, the Fords, and the Pages. We don\u2019t know whether Fenton will turn out to be a paragon of high moral seriousness, but he does <\/em>seem serious about Anne. In, say, Romeo & Juliet\u2019s <\/em>tragic universe, what Fenton and Anne do would certainly prove lethal, but here in the comic universe of Windsor, their romantic elopement allows them to wrest from parental demands a fine marriage that satisfies both them and a society in which, as always, \u201cthe world must be peopled.\u201d <a href=\"#_edn30\" id=\"_ednref30\">[30]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nEdition.<\/strong>\u00a0Greenblatt, Stephen et al., editors.\u00a0The Norton Shakespeare: Comedies + Digital Edition. <\/em>3rd ed. W. W. Norton, 2016. ISBN-13:\u00a0978-0-393-93861-6.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCopyright \u00a9 2025 Alfred J. Drake<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nDocument Timestamp: 8\/17\/2025 10:11 AM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"endnotes\">ENDNOTES<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n*To return to exact part of the text referenced by the endnotes below, left-click on the endnote’s numbered link. By contrast, the blue scroll-up button at the bottom right of the page returns to the top of the document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref1\" id=\"_edn1\">[1]<\/a> Shallow\u2019s reference to the Star Chamber is anachronistic since that judicial entity wasn\u2019t created until 1487, the year in which the Wars of the Roses ended, whereas Henry V died in 1422. See Britannica.com\u2019s article \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Star-Chamber\">Star Chamber<\/a>.\u201d Accessed 10\/3\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref2\" id=\"_edn2\">[2]<\/a> Catholic Church since the play is set during the reign of Henry IV or V, though the actual setting is more like Shakespeare\u2019s own time than late medieval England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref3\" id=\"_edn3\">[3]<\/a> For the currency calculation, see Eris W. Nye, Pounds Sterling to Dollars: Historical Conversion of Currency, <\/em>accessed 8\/3\/2025. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uwyo.edu\/numimage\/currency.htm\">https:\/\/www.uwyo.edu\/numimage\/currency.htm<\/a>. A closer figure is 1.1 million pounds sterling. A tidy sum!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref4\" id=\"_edn4\">[4]<\/a> The penalty for poaching deer and other game in England varied, but could be severe. See \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldhistory.org\/article\/1579\/sports-games--entertainment-in-the-elizabethan-era\/#:~:text=Hawking%20&%20Hunting,artificial%20lakes%20on%20their%20estates.\">Sports, Games & Entertainment in the Elizabethan Era<\/a>.\u201d World History Encyclopedia. Accessed 10\/3\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref5\" id=\"_edn5\">[5]<\/a> Walter Cohen, in his Norton Comedies <\/em>introduction to Merry Wives <\/em>(591-98), points out that this play is \u201cShakespeare\u2019s most middle-class play in subject matter, setting, and outlook. It is also his most farcical \u2026\u201d (591).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref6\" id=\"_edn6\">[6]<\/a> Master Slender is another of Shakespeare\u2019s word-manglers, like Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, <\/em>Mistress Quickly in the present play, and Lancelot Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice, <\/em>among others. Such characters are usually trying (and failing hilariously) to imitate the speech of their social superiors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref7\" id=\"_edn7\">[7]<\/a> See the Folger Shakespeare Library\u2019s article \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.folger.edu\/blogs\/folger-story\/wooing-and-wedding-courtship-and-marriage-in-early-modern-england\/\">Wooing and Wedding: Courtship and Marriage in Early Modern England<\/a>.\u201d By Karen Lyon, June 8, 2018. Folger.edu. Accessed 10\/3\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref8\" id=\"_edn8\">[8]<\/a> As the Norton footnote #2 for 605 says, Nim seems to use the word \u201chumor\u201d in a way that has little to do with its basic definition. It was a versatile word in Shakespeare\u2019s time, what with the widely believed \u201ctheory of the four humors\u201d (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) that supposedly regulated human temperament. Still, Nim takes this word to places one would never expect it to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref9\" id=\"_edn9\">[9]<\/a> See Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.<\/em> Riverhead Books, 1998. Essay on The Merry Wives of Windsor, <\/em>315-18. Bloom describes Falstaff in this play as \u201ca nameless impostor masquerading as the great Sir John Falstaff\u201d (315). Falstaff in Wives <\/em>certainly falls short of the character we know from the Henry<\/em> IV-V <\/em>plays.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt should be noted, however, that even in Henry IV, Pt. 1, <\/em>where Falstaff is at his jolly best, there are strong hints of something much darker in his character: for one thing, by his own admission, he has \u201cmisused the King\u2019s press damnably\u201d (Norton Shakespeare, <\/em>3rd ed., Histories<\/em> 679, 4.2.11-13), allowing financially solid men to buy their way out of the military press or recruitment drive mandated by King Henry, and conscripting in their places poor \u201cragamuffins\u201d who end up being shot to pieces at the Battle of Shrewsbury. Falstaff shows little or no remorse for this lethally corrupt act.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWindsor<\/em> Falstaff isn\u2019t Prince Hal\u2019s playful, interiority-rich foil. Moreover, he is surrounded not by loyal underlings but by associates whom he has alienated, and by respectable provincial folk who expose his worst tendencies and even welcome him into their community. To be fair, though, there are traces of such \u201ccalculating\u201d tendencies in Sir John even in the Henry IV<\/em> plays. See, for example, his blithe, despicable admission in 5.3. of I Henry IV <\/em>that the entire company of soldiers for whom he was responsible have been shot to pieces due to his greed and incompetence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref10\" id=\"_edn10\">[10]<\/a> Mistress Quickly will be recognizable to Shakespeare\u2019s audiences from the Henry IV-V<\/em> series, where she is the hostess at Falstaff\u2019s favorite place, the Boar\u2019s Head Tavern in central London\u2019s Eastcheap Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref11\" id=\"_edn11\">[11]<\/a> Windsor is around 30 miles west of London, on the south bank of the Thames River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref12\" id=\"_edn12\">[12]<\/a> See Shakespeare, William. The History of Henry the Fourth. <\/em>Aka The First Part of Henry the Fourth.<\/em> (The Norton Shakespeare: Histories,<\/em> 3rd ed. 629-95.) The Gads Hill robbery episode in Act 2, Scenes 1-2 and its aftermath in Act 2, Scene 4 is the high point of the Falstaff story in Shakespeare. See also <a href=\"https:\/\/michaeldelahoyde.org\/shakespeare\/henryIV.1.1\/\">Dr. Michael Delahoyd\u2019s notes<\/a>, Washington SU. Accessed 10\/3\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref13\" id=\"_edn13\">[13]<\/a> Falstaff\u2019s complaint may place the play\u2019s action early in the reign of Henry V, since the new and reformed King wants nothing to do with his old friend. See Shakespeare, William. The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, Continuing to His Death, and Coronation of Henry the Fifth.<\/em> Quarto. (The Norton Shakespeare: Histories,<\/em> 3rd ed. 710-78.) In that play, Henry V accords Falstaff only an allowance for \u201ccompetence of life\u201d (basic needs) so he will have no excuse to commit further crimes. Henry\u2019s line \u201cI know thee not, old man\u201d (776, 5.5.45) proves devastating to Sir John\u2019s soul, and he never fully recovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref14\" id=\"_edn14\">[14]<\/a> As a knight, Falstaff is a member of the gentry, while an ordinary citizen is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref15\" id=\"_edn15\">[15]<\/a> On Epicureanism, see \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/iep.utm.edu\/epicur\/\">Epicurus<\/a>.\u201d Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (<a href=\"https:\/\/iep.utm.edu\/\">https:\/\/iep.utm.edu\/<\/a>.) In Shakespeare\u2019s era, the word \u201cEpicurean\u201d and its derivatives was sometimes used derogatively, as in the present play, to mean \u201cirresponsible pleasure-seeker.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref16\" id=\"_edn16\">[16]<\/a> It\u2019s hard to miss Shakespearean comedy\u2019s light-hearted treatment of cuckolds and cuckoldry. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/cuckoldry\">Cuckoldry<\/a>\u201d is defined by Wiktionary.org as either \u201cAn act of adultery committed by a married woman against her husband\u201d or \u201cThe state of being a cuckold.\u201d Accessed 10\/3\/2024. In the tragedies, of course, even the suspicion of adultery can, as in Othello, <\/em>have dire consequences, but in the comedies, it\u2019s generally seen as the result of human frailty or \u201cfallenness\u201d: people often fail to exercise control over their passions, so they fall into marital dishonesty. A favorably disposed comic universe is sufficient to allow characters to deal productively with this problem\u2014it is not a marriage \u201cdealbreaker.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref17\" id=\"_edn17\">[17]<\/a> Justice Shallow\u2019s nostalgia transcends the present play. When Falstaff says to him in II Henry IV, <\/em>\u201cWe have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow\u201d (747, 3.2.193-94), Shallow responds, \u201cThat we have, that we have, that we have; in faith, \/ Sir John, we have\u201d (747, 3.2.195-96). The two seem to be recalling their youthful days of drinking and visiting houses of prostitution at night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref18\" id=\"_edn18\">[18]<\/a> See Marlowe, Christopher. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/poems\/44675\/the-passionate-shepherd-to-his-love\">The Passionate Shepherd to His Love<\/a>,\u201d or \u201cCome live with me and be my love.\u201d poetryfoundation.org. Accessed 10\/3\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref19\" id=\"_edn19\">[19]<\/a> With regard to the often public nature of criminal penalties during the Tudor Period, see Lucy Soaft\u2019s article \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollector.com\/tudor-period-crime-and-punishment\/\">Crime and Punishment in the Tudor Period<\/a>.\u201d thecollector.com Accessed 10\/3\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref20\" id=\"_edn20\">[20]<\/a> <a>Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. <\/em>Second Quarto with additions from the Folio. (The Norton Shakespeare: Tragedies,<\/em> 3rd ed. Combined text 358-447.)<\/a> 412, 3.4.93-94.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref21\" id=\"_edn21\">[21]<\/a> This reference to Fenton\u2019s friendship with Poins in wilder times is another suggestive line that may place the play\u2019s action slightly after the reign of Henry IV, since Prince Hal gave up his wild ways upon becoming Henry V.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref22\" id=\"_edn22\">[22]<\/a> For examples of these farcical skits from the Italian commedia dell\u2019arte, <\/em>see sites.google.com, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/site\/italiancommedia\/lazzi\">Lazzi<\/a>.\u201d Accessed 10\/3\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref23\" id=\"_edn23\">[23]<\/a> See, for example, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/allpoetry.com\/Love-That-Doth-Reign-And-Live\">Love, that doth reign and live within my heart<\/a>\u201d for this extended conceit of love as a soldier. Allpoetry.com. Accessed 10\/2\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref24\" id=\"_edn24\">[24]<\/a> See Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.<\/em> Riverhead Books, 1998. Essay on The Merry Wives of Windsor, <\/em>315-18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref25\" id=\"_edn25\">[25]<\/a> Shakespeare, William. The Life of Henry the Fifth.<\/em> Folio. (The Norton Shakespeare: Histories,<\/em> 3rd ed. 790-857.) See 808, 2.3.21-22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref26\" id=\"_edn26\">[26]<\/a> See Helen Ostovich\u2019s \u201cTextual Introduction\u201d (Norton Comedies<\/em> 599-600) regarding the history of Merry Wives <\/em>as a printed text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref27\" id=\"_edn27\">[27]<\/a> On the legend of Herne the Hunter, see the RSC website\u2019s article \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rsc.org.uk\/the-merry-wives-of-windsor\/about-the-play\/herne-the-hunter#:~:text=Herne%20the%20Hunter%20is%20a,blasting%20trees%20and%20bewitching%20cattle.\">Herne the Hunter and the Wild Hunt<\/a>.\u201d Rsc.org.uk. Accessed 10\/2\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref28\" id=\"_edn28\">[28]<\/a> Cuckold here seems to mean \u201cfool\u201d in a general sense. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/cuckoldly#English\">Cuckoldly<\/a> can mean \u201cContemptible, foolish, inept.\u201d En.wiktionary.org. Accessed 10\/2\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref29\" id=\"_edn29\">[29]<\/a> Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. <\/em>Second Quarto with additions from the Folio. In The Norton Shakespeare: Tragedies,<\/em> 3rd ed. Combined text 358-447. See 393, 2.2.450-51.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref30\" id=\"_edn30\">[30]<\/a> See Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing.<\/em> In The Norton Shakespeare: Comedies,<\/em> 3rd ed. 534-90. Benedict\u2019s (or Benedick\u2019s) fuller remark is, \u201cNo, the world must be peopled. When I said \/ I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were \/ married\u201d (556, 2.3.213-15).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shakespeare\u2019s Merry Wives of Windsor Commentary A. Drake Shakespeare, William. The Merry Wives of Windsor. Folio. (The Norton Shakespeare: Comedies, 3rd ed. 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Drake Shakespeare, William. The Merry Wives of Windsor. Folio. (The Norton Shakespeare: Comedies, 3rd ed. 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{"id":214,"date":"2024-04-13T21:32:45","date_gmt":"2024-04-14T04:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/?page_id=214"},"modified":"2025-08-26T07:38:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T14:38:27","slug":"the-merry-wives-of-windsor-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/the-merry-wives-of-windsor-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Merry Wives of Windsor"},"content":{"rendered":"