The horse-stealing episode may allude to the Duke of Württemberg’s visit to England in 1592 and has parallels with a comic sequence in Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus. Falstaff with his horns in the park combines the folktale of Herne the Hunter with the classical myth (from Ovid’s Metamorphoses) of Actaeon. The pinching Fairies are themselves pinched from Act 4 Scene 3 of John Lyly’s play Endymion, the Man in the Moon (published 1591).
TEXT: Published in Quarto in 1602, in a version that has the hallmarks of a “reported text” of a stage production. About half the length of the Folio, and with many textual corruptions, the Quarto was reprinted in 1619. The First Folio text of 1623 was set from a transcript by Ralph Crane, professional scribe to the King’s Men, though it is not certain whether he worked from the playhouse “book” or an authorial manuscript.
The Quarto calls into question two significant details in the Folio. First, the name by which Ford calls himself when disguised: this is “Brooke” in Quarto but “Broom” in Folio. “Brooke” was clearly Shakespeare’s original intention, being an aquatic variation on “Ford” and the occasion for at least one liquid pun (“Such Brooks are welcome to me, that o’erflows such liquor”—2.2.134). The change to “Broom” in Folio may well have been made in order to avoid offending the powerful family with whom Shakespeare had already been in trouble over a name in 1 Henry IV. Lord Cobham had objected to the name Sir John Oldcastle, with the result that Shakespeare changed it to Sir John Falstaff. The Cobham family name was Brooke, so perhaps they intervened again, or the name was changed for fear that they might. We follow Folio’s Broom, but in production it is probably best to revert to Brook, in order to make the watery jokes work. Falstaff does not, after all, hide in a broom cupboard: he is thrown into a brook.
The other issue is the color coding at the climactic moment of the play, when Anne’s three suitors come on and take the fairy each of them supposes is her, while the children are singing their song and pinching Falstaff. In Folio, Master Page tells Slender that his daughter will be in white, but when Slender comes on with the humiliating news that he has grabbed and married a boy, he says that he took a fairy in green. With Caius, it is the other way around: Mistress Page tells him that Anne will be in green, but he takes a boy in white. Editors since the eighteenth century have reversed the colors in the dialogue at the end, to make them consistent with those of the initial plan. Since the inconsistency is much more likely to be the author’s than the printer’s, we have not done this, but attention is drawn to this issue in the gloss and the textual notes.
LIST OF PARTS
MISTRESS Margaret PAGE, of Windsor
Master George PAGE, her husband
ANNE Page, their daughter
WILLIAM Page, a boy, their son
MISTRESS Alice FORD, of Windsor
Master Frank FORD, her husband
Master FENTON, a young gentleman, in love with Anne Page
Sir John FALSTAFF
followers of Falstaff
BARDOLPH
PISTOL
NIM
up from the country
ROBIN, Falstaff’s pageboy
Robert SHALLOW, Esquire, a country justice
Master Abraham SLENDER, cousin to Shallow
Peter SIMPLE, servant to Slender
Sir Hugh EVANS, a Welsh parson
HOST, of the Garter Inn
Doctor CAIUS, a French physician
John RUGBY, his servant
MISTRESS QUICKLY, his housekeeper
Servants; Children of Windsor playing Fairies
running scene 1
Enter Justice Shallow, Slender [and] Sir Hugh Evans
SHALLOW Sir Hugh, persuade me not. I will make a Star1
Chamber matter of it. If he were twenty Sir John Falstaffs, he
shall not abuse Robert Shallow, esquire.
SLENDER In the county of Gloucester, Justice of Peace and
Coram5.
SHALLOW Ay, cousin Slender, and Custalorum6.
SLENDER Ay, and Rato-lorum7 too; and a gentleman born,
master parson, who writes himself Armigero in any bill8,
warrant, quittance or obligation9, Armigero.
SHALLOW Ay, that I do, and have done any time these three
hundred years.
SLENDER All his successors — gone before him — hath done’t,
and all his ancestors — that come after him — may. They
may give the dozen white luces14 in their coat.
SHALLOW It is an old coat.
EVANS The dozen white louses do become16 an old coat well.
It agrees well passant. It is a familiar17 beast to man, and
signifies love.
SHALLOW The luce is the fresh fish. The salt fish is an old coat19.
SLENDER I may quarter, coz20.
SHALLOW You may, by marrying.
EVANS It is marring indeed, if he quarter it.
SHALLOW Not a whit.
EVANS Yes, py’r lady24: if he has a quarter of your coat, there
is but three skirts25 for yourself, in my simple conjectures.
But that is all one: if Sir John Falstaff have committed
disparagements unto you, I am of the church, and will be glad
to do my benevolence, to make atonements and compromises28
between you.
SHALLOW The Council30 shall hear it, it is a riot.
EVANS It is not meet31 the Council hear a riot: there is no fear
of Got32 in a riot. The Council, look you, shall desire to hear the
fear of Got, and not to hear a riot. Take your vizaments33 in that.
SHALLOW Ha, o’my life, if I were young again, the sword should
end it.
EVANS It is petter that friends is the sword36, and end it. And
there is also another device in my prain, which peradventure37
prings goot discretions38 with it. There is Anne Page, which is
daughter to Master Thomas39 Page, which is pretty virginity.
SLENDER Mistress Anne Page? She has brown hair, and speaks
small41 like a woman.
EVANS It is that fery person for all the ’orld, as just42 as you
will desire, and seven hundred pounds of moneys, and gold
and silver, is44 her grandsire upon his death’s-bed — Got
deliver to a joyful resurrections! — give45, when she is able to
overtake seventeen years old. It were a goot motion46, if we
leave our pribbles and prabbles47, and desire a marriage
between Master Abraham and Mistress Anne Page.
SLENDER Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pound?
EVANS Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny50.
SLENDER I know the young gentlewoman: she has good gifts51.
EVANS Seven hundred pounds, and possibilities52, is goot
gifts.
SHALLOW Well, let us see honest54 Master Page. Is Falstaff there?
EVANS Shall I tell you a lie? I do despise a liar as I do despise
one that is false, or as I despise one that is not true. The
knight, Sir John, is there, and I beseech you, be ruled by your
well-willers58. I will peat the door for Master Page.
Knocks
What, ho! Got pless your house here!
PAGE Who’s there?
Speaks within and then enters
EVANS Here is Got’s plessing, and your friend, and Justice
Shallow, and here young Master Slender, that peradventures
shall tell you another tale63, if matters grow to your likings.
PAGE I am glad to see your worships well.
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