These are just some very brief questions and observations whittled down from my full commentary on The Merry Wives of Windsor. They may prove useful for participating in class discussion. If you want to view the full questions and commentary set, just follow the relevant links in the sitewide menu bar above.
Shakespeare, William. The Merry Wives of Windsor. Folio. (The Norton Shakespeare: Comedies, 3rd ed. 602-59.)
Act 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—he was too drunk to know which—robbed his purse …..)
Things to look for ….
The play begins on an angry note, with Justice Shallow threatening to make his allegations against Sir John Falstaff a matter for the Star Chamber. Slender has his own complaint against Falstaff and his associates. There are also other flavors set before us—Sir Hugh Evans offers his help in reconciling Shallow and Falstaff, and on the whole, Master Page seems like a peacemaker who believes in the power of hospitality.
Here, we might want to think about the first impression that this seemingly picturesque town of Windsor, so close to the famous royal quarters that still impress people today, makes on us in the first act or two. What kind of place is it, in terms of its inhabitants’ manners and mores? What “makes them tick,” as we would say today? Is the place a friendly or a hostile environment, competitive or cooperative? This business of Shallow and Slender’s grievances kicks off the first of two plots, which is the community’s revenge against Falstaff for his abuses.
Why do Falstaff and his associates seem like intruders into this community, and how well does the community fight back? That’s a question for the play in its entirety.
The other key thing happening, the second plot in fact, is the pursuit of the very marriageable Anne Page, who will have no fewer than three suitors during this play, though two of them are thoroughly ridiculous.
We will want to keep this standard comic interest in “the institution of marriage” and see what Shakespeare does with it in this play. I think you’ll find that Shakespeare—who married a woman (Anne Hathaway) eight or so years older than himself—has a rather broad way of conceiving what makes a suitable marriage. So we may consider the play a rollicking exploration of this institution and how it’s to be defined in a socially constructive way.
Act 1, Scene 2 (608, Sir Hugh tells Slender’s man Simple to bring a letter to Dr. Caius’s servant Mistress Quickly requesting her assistance in Slender’s pursuit of Anne Page.)
Things to look for ….
Sir Hugh hurries Slender’s man Simple off with a letter for Mistress Quickly, servant of the Frenchman Dr. Caius, seeking her assistance in Slender’s 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.
Act 1, Scene 3 (609-11, Falstaff’s sinking finances lead him to offload his servant Bardolph to the Host of the Garter Inn; 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 plot to “out” Falstaff to Master Ford and Master Page.)
Things to look for ….
If you’re familiar with Henry IV, Parts 1-2, this version of Sir John Falstaff must be a disappointment. He’s down on his luck. Falstaff has always been a rascal, but before, he was full of life, somehow larger than the plays that tried to contain him. Here in Windsor, things are otherwise. I’m sorry to say that Sir John is treating kindness as weakness: he means to take sexual advantage of two virtuous local matrons and fleece their husbands.
So a central matter for us is how the play’s characters plan and execute their “revenge” against this meaner iteration of the great Sir John Falstaff. What punishment does he receive? Is it proportional to the harm he clearly intends to do?
Much 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 “She 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” (610, 1.3.58-61). Erotic imperialism, we might call such talk.
Even Pistol and Nim are offended, though not for the reason they really should be. Why, then, are they offended with Falstaff?
Act 1, Scene 4 (611-14, Peter Simple delivers Sir Hugh’s letter asking Mistress Quickly for help in Slender’s wooing of Anne Page; Dr. Caius becomes enraged with Sir Hugh and issues a written challenge to the meddling parson for helping Slender, and tasks Simple with delivering the challenge….)
Things to look for ….
No sooner does Caius leave than Fenton, another of Anne’s suitors, shows up to ask for Mistress Quickly’s help. She promises to assist, but when Fenton departs, she admits that she doesn’t think much of his prospects: “Truly an honest gentleman. But Anne loves him not. For I / know Anne’s mind as well as another does” (614, 1.4.146-47). Mistress Quickly is a vital intelligencer and go-between in this play. How does she benefit from this arrangement?
Act 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….)
Things to look for ….
Mistress Page and Mistress Ford have both received a scandalous love-letter from Sir John Falstaff, and when the two women sit down to compare the letters, both are the same. The lazy knight has sent them a form letter!
It would be interesting to reflect on how Shakespeare establishes the reputations of these two married women, Mistress Page and Mistress Ford. What apparently places them beyond the reproach to which Falstaff would subject them? And what makes their response, their precise method of revenge, so “spot on”?
One interesting thing that crops up in this scene is the very strong difference between the husbands, Master Ford and Master Page, regarding the trust they do, or do not, put in their wives. What accounts for this difference? What consequences would you expect for each of these gentlemen as a result of the approach they take toward their marriages?
Shallow 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.
Act 2, Scene 2 (619-24, Falstaff argues with Pistol over the latter’s request for a loan; Mistress Quickly brings Falstaff 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 “Broom,” 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.)
Things to look for ….
Pistol and Falstaff quarrel bitterly over the latter’s refusal to lend Pistol a small sum. Falstaff betrays anxiety about his straitened circumstances, belting out, “it 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 …” (619, 2.2.18-21).
If possible, Falstaff sinks even lower in our estimation by this admission. Another thing to look for is Master Ford, aka “Master Broom,” and his progressive case of insecurity as a husband. What seems to be eating away at this fellow, anyhow?
Act 2, Scene 3 (625-26, when Sir Hugh Evans doesn’t 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.)
Things to look for ….
Dr. Caius is waiting in Windsor Park for Sir Hugh to arrive for their fateful duel, but the latter is a no-show. With Caius still raging, the Host steps in and puts an end to the scene, promising him, “Go 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!” (626, 2.3.75-77) That is good enough for Dr. Caius. Does Caius affect your view of Windsor, or do you just write him off? Is he also a prism through which we might view the play’s emphasis on masculine “martial” discourse and activity?
Act 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.)
Things to look for ….
The duel between Sir Hugh and Dr. Caius heats up to … lukewarm? On a scale of one to ten, how likely is it that either of these silly characters wants an actual duel to take place? Can we pick “zero” as our answer?
All the same, watch what happens when the Host of the Garter admits that he has actually been keeping the two men apart so no harm would come to either? What effect does that have on Sir Hugh and Dr. Caius? (See 629, 3.1.102-04). Doesn’t this scene tell us both how important civility is, as well as how determined people are at least to make a show of breaching it? Isn’t that sort of what parents mean when they say their children want there to be guard rails on their conduct, or else they would have no safe way to test the limits of their behavior?
Act 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.)
Things to look for ….
Why is Master Ford so determined to prove his wife is unfaithful? How does Shakespeare deal with the psychology of jealousy here?
Why doesn’t Master Page like Fenton very much as a husband for his daughter Anne?
Master Ford ends the scene by inviting specifically Dr. Caius, Master Page, and Sir Hugh to his home to see if they can catch Falstaff and Mistress Ford in the act.
Act 3, Scene 3 (631-35, Mistresses Ford and Page set their plans in motion; Robin announces Falstaff’s 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.)
Things to look for ….
The plot against Falstaff seems very well orchestrated, with even some of the servants being instructed about what role they will play. It’s all designed to get the knight into that oversized basket full of dirty laundry.
Isn’t part of the pleasure in the joke for Mistress Ford that she is also making a fool of her husband? He looks as absurd as Falstaff by the time the servants have trundled the would-be adulterer off to be dumped into a nearby washing pool or ditch along the Thames River.
So what’s the idea for the next humiliation of Falstaff?
Act 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—probably just to placate him—to remain neutral until she questions Anne on the matter; Mistress Quickly is engaged to help all three of Anne’s suitors, aside from her work as go-between for Mistresses Ford and Page with Falstaff.)
Things to look for ….
How are things going for Anne’s suitors Master Fenton and Master Slender? How does Mistress Page show her hand in the proceedings?
Mistress Quickly is making pretty good money seeming to support all three candidates for Anne’s affections.
Act 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—as “Broom”—in 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.)
Things to look for ….
Isn’t Falstaff going from bad to worse by this point? How does Shakespeare’s portrait of the knight show him to be a much diminished and even pathetic figure? Why does Falstaff accept a second meeting with Mistress Ford?
How, too, is Master Ford’s jealousy intensifying to a potentially dangerous level?
Act 4, Scene 1 (640-42, at Mistress Page’s 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’s off with Mistress Page to the Ford residence.)
Before going off to Mistress Ford’s home, 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 ignorant Mistress Quickly and Sir Hugh with his heavy accent, the boy impresses his mother.
Act 4, Scene 2 (642-46, Mistresses Ford and Page carry out the second round of Falstaff’s punishment: this time, an attempt is made to smuggle him out of the Ford residence dressed as “the fat woman of Brentford” …; the women congratulate themselves on a plan well executed, decide to tell their husbands about it, and agree that Falstaff’s humiliations must be capped by public exposure and communal mockery.)
Things to look for ….
This scene really showcases the empowerment of Mistresses Ford and Page, so we might consider the ways in which it does that. Falstaff looks more and more absurd, and so does the raging Master Ford, who is approaching jealous madness until his wife lets him in on the joke being played at Falstaff’s and his expense.
Act 4, Scene 3 (646, supposedly, a group of Germans want to hire the Host of the Garter’s horses as part of a trick against the Host for misleading Dr. Caius and Sir Hugh.)
Things to look for ….
Some 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 a longer version of Merry Wives, would see Dr. Caius and Sir Hugh getting revenge on the Host.
Act 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’s 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—Slender and Caius—to make away with Anne in disguise and marry her.)
Things to look for ….
Ford is abashed after having heard his wife and Mistress Page’s explanation of how they virtuously cozened the cozener Falstaff, and promises to amend his ways. From now on, he tells her, “do what thou wilt. / I rather will suspect the sun with cold / Than thee with wantonness” (647, 4.4.5-7).
Round three of Falstaff’s punishment, by agreement, is to be planned carefully, and the plot will involve an old legend about “Herne the Hunter.” Why is it important to the merry wives that Falstaff’s last punishment be fully public and communal in its playing-out?
The 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. So have a look at the subterfuge that works its way into the Falstaff plot in order to advance each parent’s favored suitor.
Act 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 “the wise woman of Brentford” and on a mission from Slender; Mistress Quickly enters with yet another proffer to a demoralized Falstaff, this time a meeting with both Mistress Ford and Mistress Page; Falstaff and Quickly take their conversation upstairs.)
Things to look for ….
Falstaff sounds very downcast. He worries about his reputation: “If it should come to the ear of / the court how I have been transformed … / … they would melt / me out of my fat, drop by drop, and liquor fishermen’s boots / with me” (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.
Mistress Quickly invites Falstaff to take a third bite at the apple. She claims that Mistress Ford has been beaten for her alleged transgression, and convinces the knight to give seduction one more go—this time, his reward will be both ladies.
Act 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 pretend to agree to a marriage with both Slender and Caius, but will instead run away with Fenton.)
Things to look for ….
The Host is in a terrible mood, having lost his horses to “Germans,” but Fenton offers him a hundred pounds’ worth of gold to set up his wedding to Anne that night. How is he showing by his courtship activities that he and Anne are indeed the most suitable marriage match?
Act 5, Scene 1 (652, Falstaff agrees with Mistress Quickly to rendezvous with Mistress Ford, but this time also with Mistress Page; when “Broom,” enters, Falstaff promises him a wonderful sight at Herne’s oak that evening.)
Things to look for ….
In 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 “Herne the Hunter” costume, replete with a nice set of horns, with obvious reference to cuckoldry.
Master Ford soon enters, this time knowing what’s on the menu, and Falstaff invites him to a fateful meeting at Herne’s oak. The knight has added revenge against Ford as a special delicacy.
Act 5, Scene 2 (653, Page and Slender discuss their plans for the latter’s elopement with Anne.)
Things to look for ….
Page and Slender, his intended suitor for Anne, work on their plans for the evening.
Act 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.)
Things to look for ….
Mistress 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: “Better a little chiding than a great deal of / heartbreak” (653, 5.5.9-10).
Mistresses Page and Ford confer on the exposure of Falstaff, enjoying the certainty that Falstaff will be mocked by the whole community. The principle that reigns in Windsor Forest tonight, in Mistress Page’s words, is that “Against such lewdsters and their lechery, / Those that betray them do no treachery” (653, 5.5.20-21). This is the play’s green-world magic: it’s acceptable, even laudable, to deceive a deceiver. This sounds a lot like commedia dell’arte logic.
Act 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.)
Things to look for ….
Sir Hugh conducts children dressed as goblins and fairies to the pit that will conceal them until they sally forth to scare Falstaff and torment him until he confesses his knavery.
Act 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 …; 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, and the Ford and Page couples enter, with Ford mocking the “cuckoldly” knight; Falstaff admits his guilt, and Page invites him home to dinner; Caius and Slender return, outraged that their “Annes” were disguised boys; Fenton returns with Anne and defends their marriage, gaining the acceptance they desire from the Ford parents; all go to the Pages’ residence for dinner.)
Things to look for ….
It’s midnight, and Falstaff sends forth a prayer for success to that arch-seducer, Jove (Zeus). He comes dressed in the form of “a Windsor stag, and the fattest, I / think, i’th’ forest” (654, 5.5.11-12). Mistresses Page and Ford soon join him, and he is in all his glory for a moment: “Divide me like a bribed buck, each a haunch” (654, 5.5.21), he tells the women.
Just 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, tormenting him with pinching and candle burns.
Fenton runs away with Anne, whom he knows to be wearing red—not white or green, as the other suitors think.
Next, the stage directions tell us that “a noise of hunting” strikes up, and all the fairies run away. Falstaff takes off his buck’s head, and gets up as the Ford and Page couples arrive along with Justice Shallow.
Falstaff now 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: “I 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 …” (657, 5.5.115-18). Sir John is not what today we would call a sociopath—he has a conscience. Falstaff realizes at last that he has been seen through, as the Norton edition’s footnote explains.
Master Page is now able to play the affable host as is his wont, inviting the exposed and contrite Falstaff home to dinner, even promising that he’ll get to laugh at Mistress Page because he has (so he thinks) secretly married off her daughter to Slender. Mistress Page, in her turn, thinks she will have the last laugh because she believes, wrongly, that she has married Anne to Dr. Caius.
Fenton settles the upset when he defends his new wife Anne’s decision to elope with him instead of her other two suitors. Deception in the service of marital harmony is justified.
Final Reflections on The Merry Wives of Windsor
The 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’ money. In true comic spirit, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page accomplish their revenge in a civil way. They follow Hamlet’s advice, “Use every man / after his desert and who shall scape whipping?”
In 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 into the Windsor community, which swallows up the admitted wrongdoing, laundering it in the Thames like Mistress Ford’s 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 (for the most part) 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.
Even as we say this, we probably shouldn’t overlook the resentments and obsessions, the shifting alliances, that develop beneath the surface of even this relatively placid town.
The 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’t know whether Fenton will turn out to be a paragon of high moral seriousness, but he does seem serious about Anne. In, say, Romeo & Juliet’s tragic universe, what Fenton and Anne do would prove lethal, but here in comic Windsor, their elopement allows them to wrest from parental demands a fine marriage that satisfies both them and a society in which, as Much Ado About Nothing’s Benedick says, “the world must be peopled” (2.3.213-15).
Last Updated on February 21, 2025 by ajd_shxpr