Act 5, Scene 3

The street in Windsor.

[Enter MISTRESS PAGE, MISTRESS FORD, and DOCTOR CAIUS.]
Mistress Page
2025 Master Doctor, my daughter is in green; when you see your time,
2026 take her by the hand, away with her to the deanery, and dispatch
2027 it quickly. Go before into the Park; we two must go together.
Doctor Caius
2028 I know vat I have to do; adieu.
Mistress Page
2029 Fare you well, sir.
[Exit CAIUS.]
Mistress Page
2030 My husband will not rejoice so
2031 much at the abuse of Falstaff as he will chafe at the doctor's
2032 marrying my daughter; but 'tis no matter; better a little chiding
2033 than a great deal of heart break.
Mistress Ford
2034 Where is Nan now, and her troop of fairies, and the Welsh devil,
2035 Hugh?
Mistress Page
2036 They are all couched in a pit hard by Herne's oak, with obscured
2037 lights; which, at the very instant of Falstaff's and our meeting,
2038 they will at once display to the night.
Mistress Ford
2039 That cannot choose but amaze him.
Mistress Page
2040 If he be not amazed, he will be mocked; if he be amazed, he will
2041 every way be mocked.
Mistress Ford
2042 We'll betray him finely.
Mistress Page
2043 Against such lewdsters and their lechery,
2044 Those that betray them do no treachery.
Mistress Ford
2045 The hour draws on: to the oak, to the oak!
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 2026archaic vocab
“take her by the hand, away with her to the deanery”
A 'deanery' is the official house and jurisdiction of a cathedral dean — a senior clergyman who runs the day-to-day administration of a cathedral chapter. Windsor Castle has its own dean and a collegiate church (St George's Chapel), so Mistress Page is directing Caius to elope with Anne at that ecclesiastical office. The plan is for a quick, private marriage away from her husband's knowledge.
TLN 2034cultural context
“the Welsh devil, Hugh”
Mistress Ford calls Parson Evans 'the Welsh devil, Hugh' as an affectionate joke: Welsh folklore was rich in supernatural creatures, and the English associated Wales with devils, spirits, and magic. The jest also plays on Evans's role tonight — he is leading the children disguised as fairies who will torment Falstaff at Herne's Oak, so the 'devil' label is apt for the occasion.
TLN 2036historical topical
“couched in a pit hard by Herne's oak”
Herne the Hunter was a ghost of Windsor Forest — a former royal gamekeeper said to walk at midnight wearing great antlers, blasting trees and bewitching cattle. The wives have chosen his oak as the site of the final trick: Falstaff will be lured there disguised in a buck's head, so he wears the horns of the ghost. 'Couched' means hidden and crouching; the group is concealed nearby with their lights darkened, ready to burst out.
historical Herne the Hunterhistorical The cuckold's horns
TLN 2043archaic vocab
“Against such lewdsters and their lechery”
'Lewdster' is an Elizabethan word for a lewd or lascivious person — someone who pursues sexual misconduct. It survives only here in Shakespeare. Mistress Page is generalizing the lesson of the trick: men like Falstaff who chase married women deserve to be exposed, and the women who expose them have committed no betrayal ('no treachery') by doing so.