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Ford is the husband of Mistress Ford. As a middle-class resident of Windsor, he is a fairly well-off man, which is what initially makes his wife a target for Falstaff’s seduction plot: the knight wants to siphon off some of his money. When Ford learns about Falstaff’s intention to seduce his wife, the news inflames his predisposition for jealousy. Despite not having any concrete reason to question his wife’s honor, and refusing the advice of Master Page, who urges him to trust his wife, Ford grows obsessed with the idea of her infidelity. This jealousy leads Ford to adopt the persona of Master “Brook” as part of a plot to catch Falstaff in the act of cuckolding him. Of course, there is no true infidelity at play, and so Ford’s plotting fails, and to great comic effect. To his credit, however, when his wife fills him in on the scheme she and Mistress Page have employed to humiliate Falstaff, Ford is immediately repentant. Thus reformed, Shakespeare grants him the play’s closing couplet. Speaking to an appropriately chastened Falstaff, he declares: “To Master Brook you yet shall hold your word, / For he tonight shall lie with Mistress Ford” (5.5.253–54).
