This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
In Windsor, love and commerce are inexorably intertwined.
Although incensed at wrongs done them by the notorious Sir John Falstaff and his rascally henchmen, the attention of Shallow, the local justice of the peace, and his kinsman, Slender, is diverted when the Welsh parson, Sir Hugh Evans, informs them that a young townswoman named Anne Page stands to inherit 700 pounds presently.
They call on the Pages, a respectable local family, both to confront Falstaff and for Slender to make suit to young Anne. To speed their suit, Shallow and Slender agree to submit their dispute with Falstaff to mediation, but Slender shows little promise as a lover.
Falstaff, a guest at the Garter Inn nearby, strikes upon a similar, if less honest, means to line his empty pockets and support his rag-tag retinue. He is convinced that he commands the hearts of two Wives of wealthy citizens, a Mistress Ford as well as Mistress Page, and that they in turn command their husbands' purses: he will cuckold both husbands to gain access to their coffers. But when his men Pistol and Nym refuse to carry his love letters to his victims, Falstaff turns them out of service in a rage. They, in turn, seek revenge by informing Page and Ford of his design.
Attended by Mistress Quickly, a woman of uncertain profession, a phlegmatic French physician named Dr. Caius is also resident in Windsor. Dr. Caius also has Anne Page (and her dowry) in mind. He keeps Quickly in service because she is intimate with Anne, so when Sir Hugh also seeks to manipulate this friendship on behalf of Slender, a violent dispute between the doctor and the parson is only defused, after much confused bluster, by the Host of the Garter.
Mistress Quickly, indeed, derives a steady income from Anne's marriageability, eagerly encouraging -- for financial considerations -- not only Dr. Caius and Slender, but a young gentleman named Fenton as well. Of Anne Page's three suitors, her father prefers Slender, her mother Dr. Caius, while she herself loves Fenton.
Meanwhile, Mistresses Page and Ford have received Falstaff's protestations of love. Their modesty insulted that he'd presume they'd be unfaithful, their vanity stung that he'd presume they'd be unfaithful _with him_, the pair immediately fall to plotting revenge. They send Mistress Quickly to invite Falstaff to meet Mistress Ford the next morning while her husband is out.
Although Page and Ford are both informed of Falstaff's schemes, Page finds it laughable while Ford is wracked with jealousy. Disguised as a man named Brook, supposedly himself in pursuit of Mistress Ford, Ford gains Falstaff's confidence. What he hears from the knight seems to vindicate his jealousy, and he brings Page, Dr. Caius and Sir Hugh home to interrupt his wife's supposed tryst with Falstaff.
At Ford's house, the two Wives prepare for Falstaff's visit. He arrives, all ardor and flattery, before Mistress Page reappears by design to warn them that Ford comes home "with half Windsor at his heels." Falstaff, terrified, agrees to be borne to the river in a basket containing dirty laundry to escape. As Ford fruitlessly searches his house, the Wives are pleased equally that Falstaff is punished with a dunking in the Thames and that Ford's jealousy is justly condemned by all. Still, they resolve to abuse their would-be seducer further.
Appalled as he is with the treatment he's received, Falstaff cannot refuse a further invitation from Mistress Ford (and money from "Brook"). No sooner is he soothed by her apologies, however, than again Mistress Page enters and warns them of Ford's imminent return home. Falstaff can only escape by dressing in the gown of the local fortune teller. Ford has forbidden this woman to enter his house, and, taken in by the disguise, beats Falstaff mercilessly. Upon again finding no grounds for his jealousy, Ford is abashed. Mistresses Page and Ford show Falstaff's letters to their husbands and Sir Hugh, and they plot a final, public act of vengeance.
They persuade Falstaff to disguise himself as Herne, a figure out of local folklore, and lure him to a midnight meeting in Windsor Park. Once there, others in fairy costume set upon the knight and torture him until he reveals himself, confessing his wickedness. Falstaff has no choice but to accept their mockery. But he is not the only victim in the night's frolics. Anne Page has taken part as one of the fairies. But while her father sought to spirit her off during the confusion to marry Slender, and her mother similarly schemed to help Dr. Caius, it is Fenton who actually marries Anne. Her parents have no choice but to offer their blessings, recognizing that Anne's happiness will be more sure in a marriage based on love rather than commerce.
J. Ripp
© Joseph Ripp,
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License.