The Merry Wives of Windsor

Sir Hugh Evans waits at Frogmore with Simple, carrying a Bible and a sword. He sends Simple to look for Doctor Caius around Windsor. Alone, Sir Hugh swings between pious appeals and sharp irritation, tries to settle himself with snatches of song, and vows to punish Caius when the chance appears.

Simple returns to say someone is coming, but the arrivals are Master Page, Justice Shallow, and Slender. They greet Sir Hugh; Shallow jokes about a parson carrying both book and blade. Sir Hugh disparages Caius’s medical learning and calls him a coward. The Host of the Garter Inn then enters with Caius and the servant Rugby. Caius and Sir Hugh lunge toward a fight, but Page and Shallow step between them and take their weapons. The Host demands peace, urges them to talk rather than fight, and then reveals that he sent each man to a different meeting place so that no one would be harmed. He boasts that he will not risk losing either his doctor or his parson and declares the matter settled.

Left together, Caius and Sir Hugh realize that they have been tricked. Each feels like a laughingstock. Their shared anger at the Host unites them.