60 pages • 2 hours read
The Merry Wives of Windsor
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Act VChapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination and graphic violence.
Act V, Scene 1 Summary
Falstaff meets Mistress Quickly and confirms the midnight rendezvous at Herne’s Oak. He treats the “third time” as a charm. He urges Quickly to manage the arrangements. Ford arrives in disguise as Master Brook. Falstaff reports his recent beating while dressed as the Brentford woman and mocks Ford’s jealousy. Promising Brook that the scheme will reach its climax that night, he directs Brook to wait at Herne’s Oak around midnight to witness wonders. Falstaff vows to take his revenge on Ford and to deliver Mistress Ford to Brook, and he hustles off to make final preparations.
Act V, Scene 2 Summary
Page, Shallow, and Slender sneak toward the castle ditch to lie in wait. Page reminds Slender of the plan, and Slender confirms that he and Anne share a code word to identify each other. Shallow scoffs that the color alone should suffice. The men move off to their positions as the hour approaches.
Act V, Scene 3 Summary
Mistress Page and Mistress Ford brief Doctor Caius. They tell him to seize Anne when he sees her dressed in green and to rush her to the deanery for marriage. Caius departs to take a position in the park. Mistress Page predicts that Page will care more about losing Anne to Caius than about Falstaff’s humiliation, but she judges a little scolding better than heartbreak.
