Description

The corpulent knight Sir John Falstaff is staying at the Garter Inn. He has spent all his money and cannot pay his bill. Convinced of his appeal to the opposite sex, he plans to combine business with pleasure. He writes two love letters with identical content, one to Alice Ford and one to Meg Page, the wives of two prosperous citizens, asking them for a rendezvous. The two of them hatch a plan to make a fool of Falstaff. They send Mistress Quickly to invite Falstaff to Ford’s house between two and three o’clock as that is when the jealous master of the house is not at home. Falstaff accepts the invitation. Shortly thereafter, Ford pays him a visit. He introduces himself as Master Brook, who is in love with Alice, but whose attempts to woo her have failed. Since he has heard tell of Falstaff’s seduction prowess, he asks him to soften her up for him, in return for payment. Falstaff boasts that he will hold Alice in his arms that very day. Ford believes that Alice has betrayed him and storms into his house between two and three o’clock, where Falstaff has already arrived for his rendezvous with Alice. Without a moment to lose, the women manage to hide Falstaff in a laundry basket. To general hilarity, the basket with Falstaff in it is emptied into the Thames.

Falstaff allows himself to be talked into attempting a new rendezvous. Dis- guised as the Black Huntsman, he is to appear at night in Windsor Great Park wearing a pair of antlers on his head. There, however, dressed as elves and goblins the townsfolk fall upon him, thoroughly belabouring him. Ford’s plan to marry his daughter Nannetta, who is in love with poor Fenton, to the eccentric doctor Dr Caius also goes awry. In the general confusion, the lovers are united. Falstaff asks who has been made to look a fool. Everyone agrees: everything in life is just a jest.