payment page
Summary
At the Garter Inn, Bardolph asks the Host if the German guests may borrow three of the Host’s horses, because they are on their way to court to meet their duke. The Host agrees reluctantly, swearing that he’ll make the Germans pay a high price for the horses.
At Ford’s house, Ford, Page, Mistress Ford, Mistress Page, and Evans talk. The women have told their husbands about their plots against Falstaff, and Ford asks his wife to forgive him. He says that he will never doubt her again. Page suggests that they continue with the sport and try to plan a public humiliation of Falstaff.
Mistress Page recalls an old tale about Herne the hunter, a vicious spirit known to visit a particular oak tree at midnight in winter. Many still fear walking by Herne’s oak at night. She suggests that she and Mistress Ford should plan to meet Falstaff by this oak at midnight, at which time their children, dressed as fairies and goblins, will jump out. The two women will run away screaming, leaving Falstaff alone with the magical creatures, who will torture him with pinches until he admits his dishonor. Once he exposes his own villainy, they will “mock him home to Windsor” (4.4.70).
The men like this plan, especially Page, who imagines that he can use the ensuing confusion as an opportunity for Slender to elope with Anne. Ford says that he will go to Falstaff as Brook to find out if he plans to accept the third invitation from Mistress Ford. Evans goes off to prepare the children’s costumes. Mistress Page, left alone, considers how she can get Caius to elope with Anne during the fairy masque.
Meanwhile, the Host enters the Garter Inn with Simple. Simple has come to the Inn to speak with
“the wise woman of Brentford” (4.5.25–26), whom he has just seen go up to Falstaff’s room. Not wanting to interrupt, he plans to wait. But the Host thinks that Falstaff might be getting robbed, so they call up to him. Falstaff appears and says the woman is gone. Simple confirms that she was the wise woman, and he says he wanted to ask her whether or not it would be the fortune of his master, Slender, to marry Anne Page. Falstaff jokingly says that it is indeed his fortune “to have her or no” (4.5.50), and Simple, mistaking this equivocation for an affirmation, rushes out to tell Slender the good news.
Bardolph enters, covered with mud. He says that the Germans ran off and stole the Host’s horses. Evans enters and tells the Host that he should watch out, as he’s heard reports that three German men have been stealing horses in neighboring towns. Then Caius enters and announces that he shouldn’t bother preparing for the arrival of a duke of Germany, as that man doesn’t exist. The Host is upset, realizing that someone has tricked him, and he has lost three horses. Falstaff comments that the whole world seems to be having bad luck, for he has, too, been beaten besides. Next, Mistress Quickly enters with a message from Mistresses Ford and Page. She says that Mistress Ford, too, was beaten, and is upset at Falstaff’s misfortune. Quickly says she has news and urges that they speak in private.
Sometime later, Fenton arrives at the Inn to speak with the Host. The young suitor asks the Host to help him in his plot to marry Anne. He has just received a letter from her telling of a plot to trick Falstaff. Her father has commanded her to dress in white so that Slender will be able to recognize her in the confusion and take her away. Meanwhile, her mother has ordered her to dress in green with a mask and to elope with Caius. The Host asks which of her parents she means to deceive. Fenton says both, then he asks the Host to help him procure a vicar who will marry them that evening.
Analysis
The story about a German duke is a fiction made up by Caius and Evans to avenge themselves on the Host. The unfolding of this scheme is somewhat unclear during the play, which means that, sometime between the first performance of the play and its publication, a scene or more may have been lost wherein some characters may have disguised themselves as Germans and fooled the Host. Regardless, the subplot driven by Caius and Evans never fully develops.
Meanwhile, the plot involving the humiliation of Falstaff reaches a turning point as Mistresses Ford and Page reveal the nature of their trickery to their husbands. In doing so, Mistress Ford demonstrates that she is, in fact, an honest woman. Her husband is suitably chastened and, with a heartfelt apology, officially reformed and forgiven. For her part, Mistress Page reaffirms her virtue and proves that her husband was right to trust her. This resolution nicely underscores the importance of trust in romantic partnerships, and with confidence restored, the men are eager to join their wives in plotting against the man who has briefly turned their lives topsy-turvy. Thus, they forge a plan to terrify Falstaff with a supernatural hoax.
Yet even as they plan the trick on Falstaff, Page and his wife each make secret plans to marry their daughter off to their own preferred suitor. Thus, while Ford may have learned the error of his jealous ways, the same can’t be said for the Pages. Although they trust each other, they clearly don’t trust their daughter to make a smart decision about whom she will marry. Page still thinks she should marry the fumbling Slender, while Mistress Page believes that Caius’s court connections make him the better choice. Perhaps taking a tip from Mistress Quickly, whom we’ve seen play every side, Anne has separately agreed to marry each of these men, even as she and her true beloved, Fenton, are arranging a plan of their own with the help of the Host. The final revelation of their elopement is set to coincide with the hoax on Falstaff, all of which is sure to usher this play to its comic climax.
