Behind The Curtain: The Merry Wives of Windsor, Part Two

The Plot Full of Plots

By Liz Larson

Hello friends and welcome back! This week we're talking about the plot full of plots that is Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is one of his few plays without definite source material. As we discussed in Part 1, he pulled in characters from a few of his history plays and those history plays tend to be inspired by Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland. In fact, the character of John Falstaff was initially named John Oldcastle when he appeared in Henry IV Parts 1 & 2. John Oldcastle was a real-life knight who fought under Henry IV and was gruesomely executed potentially for being a proto-Protestant (or Lollard). His descendants pressured Shakespeare into changing the name of the character, and by the time he shows up in Merry Wives, there's little of the original Oldcastle in the character. Instead, Merry Wives seems to have been inspired by the idea of the unsavory knight John Falstaff finding himself amidst the refined company of the town of Windsor. There's some folklore about why this play was written, which we'll discuss in the next post, for now, let's talk plot. 

The plot of Merry Wives is full of the plots of its characters. Our prime plotster, John Falstaff, has found himself in Windsor and in dire need of funds, so he comes up with a plan. He'll sleep with the wives of two wealthy men in town, and then blackmail the men into paying. What could go wrong? 

He sends nearly identical letters to our titular Merry Wives – Mistress Alice Ford and Mistress Margaret Page, but, unlike most Shakespearean characters, these women actually talk to each other. Shakespeare is full of people refusing to converse leading to tragedy, but in the comedies (or at least the early ones), the women tend to band together to achieve their ends. These Merry Wives decide to torment the fool Falstaff by pretending Mistress Ford requites his affections. Their plan is to pretend that Master Ford has returned early and convince Falstaff to hide in the dirty laundry and be tossed into the river. They send Mistress Quickly to tell Falstaff when to arrive. 

However, another set of plots interfere with that of the Merry Wives. Falstaff told his fellows Pistol and Nym of his intention to woo these women, and then cast them out to fend for themselves. Unsurprisingly, the men then decided to get their revenge by telling the husbands of the wives. Mistress Ford's husband is insanely jealous, and Master Page doesn't have a jealous bone in his body. So, when Falstaff's former fellows warn Masters Page and Ford of his intent to bed their wives, Master Ford decides to disguise himself as 'Master Brook' (get it? 'Ford'? 'Brook'? So clever) and talk to Falstaff directly. Falstaff then confesses he's set this meeting with Ford's wife, allowing Master Ford to gather all the men in town to arrive and surprise them for real!

But our Merry Wives are not so easily frustrated. Falstaff is already in the dirty laundry by the time the men arrive, so not only is he humiliated by smelly socks, but the jealous Master Ford is humiliated when the house is searched and there's no Falstaff about. His fellow menfolk mock him and they carry on. 

Photo taken during the Shakespeare Birthday Parade in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 25, 2026.

But our Merry Wives are not yet done! They send Mistress Quickly back to Falstaff to plan another rendezvous. Again, Master Ford pretending to be Master Brook goes to Falstaff and Falstaff tells him of his appointment to woo Mistress Ford. Again Master Ford gathers his man posse and arrives mid-rendezvous. This time, the Merry Wives dress Falstaff like the 'Old Woman of Brentford' who Master Ford believes to be a witch. They throw Master Ford off of the scent by sending out the laundry basket again and this time he searches it and finds nothing. He then beats the 'Old Woman'/Falstaff for being a witch. And again, no Falstaff is found and Master Ford is mercilessly teased for his jealousy. 

Finally, it is at this point that the Wives of Windsor confess their trickster ways to their husbands. But before we get to that, we need to talk about the plots of another woman of Windsor, Mistress Quickly. Mistress Quickly has her own plots going regarding the marriage of Anne Page. Anne is the daughter of Mistress Margaret Page and Master George Page. Master Abraham Slender wants to marry Anne and has her father's blessing. Dr. Caius, a French doctor, wants to marry Anne and has her mother's blessing. And then there's Fenton. 

Mistress Quickley delightfully plays all of these men off of one another, taking some money for her pains. She claims Anne Page doesn't love any of them, but when Anne and Fenton speak to one another, it is in verse, signifying their heightened emotions. They are endgame, not Dr. Caius or Slender. 

Which brings us to Act 5. 

The final jest the Wives plot against Falstaff involves the 'old tale' of 'Herne the Hunter'. We'll talk more about Herne and his myth in the next post, but the important thing is that he is part fairy and part ghost, and the wives decide to dress Falstaff as Herne and scare the bejeezus out of him. Mistress Page also decides to dress her daughter Anne in green and tells Dr. Caius so that he can whisk her away to marry her. Meanwhile, Master Page sneakily has Anne dress and white to have Slender whisk her away and marry her. Meanwhile, Fenton, still speaking the romantic rhythm of verse, coopts the Host of the Garter to get a priest for him to marry Anne. 

Finally, Falstaff arrives into the woods of Windsor wearing a buck's head to play Herne the Hunter and woo Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. He is very excited, but they are interrupted! The schoolmaster enters dressed like a satyr and leading boys dressed like fairies and holding candles. The boy who played Mistress Quickley is dressed as the Queen of the Fairies, Pistol as Hobgoblin, and Anne Page as a fairy. They pretend to test Falstaff's chastity by burning his finger with a taper, which he obviously fails, so the children dressed as fairies gather around him and pinch him until he cries for mercy. Then the jest is revealed. 

As the townfolk laugh at how they've tricked Falstaff, Master and Mistress are feeling quite superior, believing Anne Page has been married to their respective favorites. But they are both deceived! It's revealed that both Slender and Dr. Caius ran off with boys wearing dresses (a fun metatheatrical nod we will discuss in post four), while Fenton and Anne married for love. The Pages embrace their new son in law, and the whole community joyously comes together. Even Falstaff. 

If you want to continue this deep dive into the play, sign up for the newsletter to be notified of our next post. Next up we'll talk about the folklore of the play and the folklore in the play.

If you want to hear more from me about Shakespeare generally, I have a Substack called Shakespeare Said it Better that you can find at https://lizlarson.substack.com/. I'm an actor, attorney, and budding Shakespearean scholar finishing up my master's in Shakespeare and Creativity at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon.