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Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor Act lV

February 1, 2011 by Lori Mitchell

Act IV Scene I Evan’s is teaching Mrs. Ford’s son Latin. This scene has nothing to do with the rest of the story. Willy would have definitely gotten his paper marked up with red ink, if he had turned this in to a writing instructor. The scene is just tossed in; it doesn’t move the plot the forward or add to the play at all. Methinks ol’ Shakespeare must have been getting paid by the word for this particular play.

Scene 2 brings us back to the real play- Fallstaff is back at the Ford’s hitting on Mrs. Ford again. He’s a little over the top…even for Shakespeare. I have included the exact dialogue here just because it is so over the top. “Mistress Ford, your sorrow hath eaten up my sufferance. I see you are obsequious in your love, and I profess requital to a hair’s breadth; not only, Mistress Ford, in the simple office of love, but in all the accoutrement, complement and ceremony of it.” I mean, are you kidding me? Talk about a drama king! Suddenly Mrs. Page rushes in and announces that Mr. Ford is on his way home. Clearly Fallstaff isn’t the brightest crayon in the box and didn’t learn from the little basket incident, he falls for it AGAIN. Although, he did learn to not crawl into the hamper, so instead he lets the ladies dress him us as the “fat woman of Brainford” who by the way Mr. Ford hates and wants to beat up….fine gentleman that he is and all. Seriously? The man wants to beat up a fat lady? Where are Olivia and Elliot when you need them? Of course the women are laughing their butts off at Fallstaff’s egotistical gullibility!

The servants just happen to be carrying (read planned by Mrs. Ford) the laundry out when Mr. Ford and his band of merry men arrive. Mr. Ford won’t be fooled twice, oh no he won’t! He stops the servants and digs through the laundry making a mess everywhere, and of course the basket contains nothing but laundry this time! His buddies give him a rash of crap about being jealous of nothing. Ford doesn’t back down to their ridicule, he invites them to help him search the house.
Fallstaff, dressed as the fat lady and the women come out and run into Mr. Ford, who throws a big tantrum and beats the poor lady (Fallstaff) up! Can we get a cop here?

When they are alone again Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page high five, fist bump and basically do the happy dance at the trick they played on Fallstaff. They decide it’s time to let their husbands in on the little joke! They also giggle at the prospect of playing one more dirty trick on Fallstaff just to humor their husbands.

Scene 3 At first glance it appears that Shakespeare is once again padding his word count because this scene comes out of nowhere. It doesn’t fit in with the plot but it does become a fairly thin subplot, that honestly never gets resolved, so maybe it is just word padding again? Anyway, basically Bardolph is talking to the Host and tells him that the Germans need 3 of his horses to go see the Duke. They basically steal them and the Host vows to make them pay for them.
Scene 4 Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page tell their husbands about Fallstaff. Mrs. Ford shows her hubby the letters from Fallstaff and he begs for her forgiveness.

The Fords and Pages plot this absolutely ridiculous plan to get even with Fallstaff. I think whoever wrote the Looney Tunes cartoons helped Shakespeare out with this one. It’s a bit “disturbing”.

Basically the plot goes like this. The women ask Fallstaff to meet them in the woods at night dressed up as Herne the Hunter, the spirit of the man who used to be the “Keeper of the Forest”. Herne is said to have horns and cause trouble in the woods. When Fallstaff shows up Anne and some more children will appear and pretend to be fairies. They will pinch him and burn him with candles and such until he admits to everything, at which time the towns people will come out and make fun of him and chase him back to town.

In the meantime Viagra Online Page is plotting to have Slender marry Anne. Mrs. Page is determined to arrange a marriage for Anne to Caius, since he’s rich. Clearly Mrs. Page wants to sell her daughter to the highest bidder.

Scene 5 Simple is at the Garter Inn. He’s looking for the fat chick of Brainford, because apparently she’s a fortune teller and Slender wants to know if her crystal ball can tell him if he’s going to marry Anne or not. Simple wants to get into Falstaff’s room because he could swear her saw her going into the room. When Fallstaff comes out he has to come up with a good reason the fat chick was in his room, so Simple cialis 100 asks him if Slender is going to marry Anne, and Fallstaff tells him that fat lady told him the answer to that one, and he gave him one of those fortune teller answers, you know the ones that are so vague you can interpret them to mean whatever you want them to mean. You’d think if the fat woman could tell fortunes she would have warned Fallstaff that he was being played for a fool instead of being the one doing the playing…but it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy, so it’s all good.

Bardorph finds out that the Germans stole his horses. At first he doesn’t believe it but then Evans tells him that all of his neighbor’s horses have been stolen as well. To add insult to injury Caius tells Bardorph that not only that but there isn’t a Duke with the name that Germans said they were going to see. He is clearly not amused.

Quicky arrives and tells Fallstaff that she has a message from Mrs. Page and Mrs. Ford. Fallstaff is still all butt hurt about the beating he got and doesn’t want to hear it. Ms. Quicky tells him that Mrs. Ford is suffering as well because her husband beat her up too (this is not true, but she had to get his attention somehow). So she gives him a letter and he invites her into his room.

Scene 6 Fenton tells the Host that he will give him as much money as he lost in the great horse theft escapade if he’ll help him out. He tells the Host that Anne’s father has arranged for Anne to sneak away and marry Slender. He says Anne is totally on board with this plan, which is a total lie. He says that Mrs. Page has also planned Anne’s wedding to Caius. The idea is for Anne to be dressed in white to sneak away and marry Slender and to be dressed in green to marry Caius. The color of her clothing is the way the prospective grooms will recognize her. However, Fenton has another idea, Fenton wants the Host to get a vicar and meet him at the church where he himself intends to bring Anne to marry him!