The Merry Wives of Windsor

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1. ACT I.

   Falstaff arrives in Windsor and resolves to woo both wives for money; suitors gather for Anne Page.

   1. Scene 1 — Windsor. Before PAGE'S house.

      Justice Shallow, fuming that Falstaff has poached his deer, comes to Windsor with his foolish cousin Slender and the Welsh parson Sir Hugh Evans, who proposes that Slender marry Anne Page. Falstaff brazens out the charges; Slender woos Anne ineptly; Page invites all to dinner.

   2. Scene 2 — The same.

      Evans sends Slender's servant Simple with a letter to Mistress Quickly, asking her to advance Slender's suit with Anne.

   3. Scene 3 — A room in the Garter Inn.

      At the Garter Inn, the cash-strapped Falstaff sets Bardolph up as a tapster and unveils his plan: to woo both Mistress Ford and Mistress Page for access to their husbands' money. Pistol and Nym refuse to carry the love-letters and vow to betray the scheme to the husbands.

   4. Scene 4 — A room in DOCTOR CAIUS'S house.

      In Doctor Caius's house, Mistress Quickly promises to help Slender — until Caius, finding Simple hidden, flies into a rage and sends a written duel-challenge to Evans for meddling. Fenton arrives to ask Quickly's help in winning Anne.

2. ACT II.

   The wives discover the identical letters and plot revenge; jealous Ford disguises himself as 'Brook.'

   1. Scene 1 — Before PAGE'S house

      Mistress Page and Mistress Ford compare Falstaff's word-for-word identical letters and resolve to string him along and shame him. Pistol and Nym warn Ford and Page; the easy-going Page shrugs, but Ford burns with jealousy. The Host promises the rival duellists a meeting.

   2. Scene 2 — A room in the Garter Inn.

      Mistress Quickly brings Falstaff word that Mistress Ford will see him. Then Ford, disguised as a stranger named 'Brook,' pays Falstaff to woo Mistress Ford on his behalf — and hears the knight boast of an assignation with her that very morning, confirming his worst fears.

   3. Scene 3 — A field near Windsor.

      In a field, Doctor Caius and his man Rugby wait for Evans to fight; the Host, Shallow, and Page arrive having sent the two combatants to different places, and propose to make sport of both.

3. ACT III

   The duel defused; Falstaff is dumped in the Thames in the buck-basket.

   1. Scene 1 — A field near Frogmore.

      Near Frogmore, Evans nervously awaits Caius; when the two meet and grasp the Host's prank, they drop their quarrel and join forces to be revenged on him.

   2. Scene 2 — A street in Windsor.

      Ford meets Mistress Page on her way to his house and, certain his wife is betraying him, gathers Page and others to catch Falstaff in the act.

   3. Scene 3 — A room in FORD'S house.

      Falstaff woos Mistress Ford; on cue Mistress Page brings word that Ford is coming. Falstaff is bundled into a great basket of foul laundry, carried out under the searching Ford's nose, and tipped into the Thames.

   4. Scene 4 — A room in PAGE'S house.

      Fenton courts Anne, who loves him; her father Page intends her for Slender and her mother for Caius. Mistress Quickly promises to help all sides at once.

   5. Scene 5 — A room in the Garter Inn.

      At the Garter, the dripping Falstaff recovers and tells 'Brook' of his ducking in the basket — and of a fresh assignation with Mistress Ford.

4. ACT IV.

   The Latin lesson; Falstaff beaten as the witch of Brentford; the wives confess and plan the masque.

   1. Scene 1 — The street.

      Mistress Page has her son William quizzed in his Latin grammar by Parson Evans, while Mistress Quickly mishears the Latin declensions as a stream of bawdy English.

   2. Scene 2 — A room in FORD'S house.

      Surprised again at Ford's house, Falstaff is dressed by the wives as the fat woman of Brentford — a supposed witch Ford loathes — and is soundly beaten by Ford as he flees. The wives decide it is time to let their husbands in on the joke.

   3. Scene 3 — A room in the Garter Inn.

      The Host agrees to provide horses for a party of Germans — the setup for his own cozening.

   4. Scene 4 — A room in FORD'S house.

      The wives tell Ford and Page the whole story; a cured Ford begs pardon. Together they plan the final trick: Falstaff lured to Herne's Oak at midnight in a buck's head, to be pinched by their children dressed as fairies.

   5. Scene 5 — A room in the Garter Inn.

      At the Garter, Simple consults Falstaff about the 'wise woman' of Brentford; the Host learns his horses have been stolen by the sham Germans.

   6. Scene 6 — Another room in the Garter Inn.

      Fenton enlists the Host's help: amid the masque's confusion he means to slip away and marry Anne.

5. ACT V.

   The fairy masque at Herne's Oak: Falstaff shamed, the suitors fooled, Anne wed to Fenton.

   1. Scene 1 — A room in the Garter Inn.

      Falstaff tells 'Brook' of the Brentford beating and his appointment that night at Herne's Oak.

   2. Scene 2 — Windsor Park.

      Page tells Shallow and Slender that Anne will be in white, so Slender may steal her away during the masque.

   3. Scene 3 — The street in Windsor.

      Mistress Page arranges for Caius to carry off Anne, who (she says) will be dressed in green.

   4. Scene 4 — Windsor Park

      Evans leads the children, disguised as fairies, into the forest to their places.

   5. Scene 5 — Another part of the Park.

      At Herne's Oak, the horned Falstaff meets both wives; the 'fairies' (led by Quickly as their Queen) pinch and burn him as they sing, until he is unmasked and repents. In the dark Slender carries off a disguised boy, Caius another, while Fenton slips away and marries Anne for love. Falstaff is forgiven and all go home to laugh it over — and Ford reveals he was 'Brook.'

Characters

• Sir John Falstaff protagonist

  The fat, boastful, perpetually broke knight, here transplanted to middle-class Windsor. Short of money, he sends identical love-letters to two married townswomen, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, meaning to fleece their husbands' purses. The wives, comparing notes, gull him three times: dumped in a basket of dirty laundry into the Thames, beaten while disguised as the fat woman of Brentford, and finally pinched by mock-fairies at Herne's Oak wearing a buck's horns.

• Mistress Ford major

  One of the two 'merry wives', married to the jealous Ford. Insulted by Falstaff's identical love-letter, she joins Mistress Page to lead him on and humiliate him, while her suspicious husband's spying nearly catches them. Honest and quick-witted, she proves the play's thesis that 'wives may be merry and yet honest too.'

• Mistress Page major

  The second 'merry wife', married to the easy-going Page and mother of Anne. With Mistress Ford she devises the gullings of Falstaff. She schemes (against her husband's wishes) to marry Anne to the French Doctor Caius — one of three rival plots for Anne's hand that all misfire in the final fairy masque.

• Ford major

  Mistress Ford's husband, consumed by jealousy. To catch his wife he disguises himself as a stranger named 'Brook' (Folio) and bribes Falstaff to woo her on his behalf, so Falstaff unknowingly reports the affair to the very husband he is cuckolding. His ransacking of his own house (for Falstaff hidden in the laundry basket) is the comic centre of his jealous folly; he is cured and reconciled by the end.

• Page supporting

  Master George Page, a comfortable Windsor citizen, Anne's father and Ford's friend. Unlike Ford he trusts his wife. He favours the foolish Slender as a husband for Anne and plots to marry her to him at the masque — a scheme that, like his wife's, is foiled when Anne weds Fenton.

• Sir Hugh Evans supporting

  A Welsh parson and schoolmaster whose heavily accented English ('pribbles and prabbles', 'fery good') is a running joke. He tries to arrange Slender's match with Anne, is goaded into a duel with Doctor Caius (which the Host defuses by sending them to different places), examines the boy William in Latin, and leads the children dressed as fairies in the final masque.

• Doctor Caius supporting

  A hot-tempered French physician whose broken English ('by gar', 'vat is de matter') marks him as a comic foreigner. He courts Anne Page with Mistress Page's backing, challenges Parson Evans to a duel over Mistress Quickly's meddling, and at the masque is tricked into eloping with a disguised boy instead of Anne.

• Mistress Quickly supporting

  Doctor Caius's housekeeper, who cheerfully serves as go-between for all three of Anne's suitors at once, taking fees from each. Good-natured and given to malapropism, she carries the wives' messages to Falstaff and plays the Fairy Queen in the closing masque at Herne's Oak.

• Host of the Garter supporting

  The jovial, slang-slinging keeper of the Garter Inn, where Falstaff lodges. He calls everyone 'bully' and 'my heart of gold', stage-manages the aborted Caius–Evans duel by sending the two combatants to different fields, and is himself cheated of three horses by sham Germans.

• Justice Shallow supporting

  A country justice of the peace, full of his own importance and his ancient coat of arms (the 'luces'/'louses' pun). He comes to Windsor with a grievance against Falstaff and tries to broker a marriage between his dim cousin Slender and Anne Page.

• Slender supporting

  Abraham Slender, Justice Shallow's foolish, bashful young cousin, pushed forward as a suitor to Anne Page. Incapable of wooing for himself ('I had rather than forty shillings I had my Book of Songs and Sonnets here'), he is supposed to carry Anne off at the masque but elopes by mistake with a disguised boy.

• Anne Page supporting

  The Pages' marriageable daughter, with a dowry that draws three suitors: Slender (her father's choice), Doctor Caius (her mother's), and Fenton (her own). She quietly outwits both parents, slipping away during the fairy masque to marry Fenton for love.

• Fenton supporting

  A young gentleman of good family, once one of Prince Hal's wild companions, who loves Anne Page (and admits her fortune first drew him). Rejected by both her parents, he wins her by his own scheme at the masque and presents the marriage as a fait accompli.

• Pistol minor

  One of Falstaff's swaggering, bombastic hangers-on. When Falstaff refuses to carry his love-letters, Pistol revenges himself by warning Master Ford that Falstaff aims at his wife. He plays Hobgoblin in the fairy masque.

• Nym minor

  Another of Falstaff's followers, whose catchword is 'humour'. Like Pistol he refuses the letter-carrying errand and betrays Falstaff's designs to Master Page.

• Bardolph minor

  Falstaff's red-faced follower, set up as a tapster (under-bartender) at the Garter Inn. He helps the Host and is suborned to rob Slender of his purse.

• Simple minor

  Slender's dull servant, sent on errands between the suitors and Mistress Quickly, and at one point hidden in Falstaff's chamber to consult the 'wise woman' of Brentford.

• Rugby minor

  Doctor Caius's serving-man, sent to watch for intruders and to carry his master's challenge to Parson Evans.

• Robin minor

  Falstaff's young page, lent to Mistress Page as a messenger, who carries notes between the knight and the wives and helps the wives' counter-plot.

• William Page minor

  The Pages' young son, a schoolboy. In a scene of bawdy double meanings he is examined in his Latin grammar by Parson Evans while Mistress Quickly mishears the Latin as indecent English.

• First Servant minor

  One of Ford's servants who carries the buck-basket of dirty laundry (with Falstaff hidden in it) to the Thames.

• Second Servant minor

  A second servant of Ford's who helps carry the buck-basket.

• Servant minor

  An unnamed serving-man carrying word between the households.

• All ensemble

  Several characters speaking together.

• Fairies ensemble

  The children and adults disguised as fairies at Herne's Oak, who sing the mock-fairy song 'Fie on sinful fantasy' as they pinch and burn the kneeling Falstaff (5.5).

Cross-references

• Folger Shakespeare
• MIT plain text
• Wikipedia