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Mistress Quickly is a character who first appeared in the Henry IV plays. There, she presided over a brothel frequented by a young Prince Hal, along with Sir John Falstaff and his entourage. In this play, Mistress Quickly works as a maid for Doctor Caius. But though her social role is different in this play, she retains her hallmark form of speech, which is peppered with sexually suggestive malapropisms that bring unexpected moments of bawdy humor. A comic highlight of the play comes in the scene where Sir Hugh Evans quizzes William Page on his Latin grammar. Listening in, the uneducated Mistress Quickly repeatedly misunderstands the conversation. For example, when William recites plural declensions in the genitive case (i.e., horum, harum, horum), Mistress Quickly replies in shock: “Vengeance of Ginny’s case [i.e., Ginny’s vagina]! Fie on her! Never name her, child, if she be a whore” (4.2.61–62). Though Mistress Quickly brings much comic relief, she is also instrumental to the plot’s humorously crossed plots. She pledges her support to all three of Anne’s suitors. She also serves as a go-between for Mistresses Ford and Page and Falstaff, enabling the knight’s series of humiliations and participating in the final fairy masque, where she plays the Fairy Queen herself.
