however intervenes, and they refuse the office. Falstaff then sends his
page with the letters, pronounces his celebrated discourse upon honour,
and hunts Bardolph and Pistol out of the house. In the second scene, we
are in Ford's garden. The letters have arrived, and the merry wives
eagerly compare notes and deliberate upon a plan for avenging themselves
upon their elderly wooer. Dame Quickly is despatched to bid Falstaff to
an interview. Meanwhile Nannetta Ford, the 'Sweet Anne Page' of
Shakespeare, has contrived to gain a stolen interview with her lover
Fenton, while the treacherous Bardolph and Pistol are telling Ford of
their late master's designs on is wife's honour. Ford's jealousy is
easily aroused, and he makes up his mind to carry the war into the
enemy's country by visiting Falstaff in disguise. The second act takes
us back to the Garter. Dame Quickly arrives with a message from Mrs.
Ford. Falstaff is on fire at once, and agrees to pay her a visit between
the hours of two and three. Ford now arrives, calling himself Master
Brook, and paves his way with a present of wine and money. He tells
Falstaff of his hopeless passion for a haughty dame of Windsor, Mrs.
Alice Ford, begging the irresistible knight to woo the lady, so that,
once her pride is broken, he too may have a chance of winning her
favour. Falstaff gladly agrees, and horrifies the unlucky Ford by
confiding the news to him that he already has an assignation with the
lady fixed for that very afternoon. The second scene is laid in a room
in Ford's house. The merry wives are assembled, and soon Falstaff is
descried approaching. Mrs. Ford entertains him for a few minutes, and
then, according to their arrangement, Dame Quickly runs in to say that
Mrs. Page is at the door. Falstaff hastily hides himself behind a large
screen, but the jest changes to earnest when Mrs. Page herself rushes in
to announce that Ford, mad with jealousy and rage, has raised the whole
household and is really coming to look for his wife's lover. The women
quickly slip Falstaff into a huge basket and cover him with dirty linen,
while Nannetta and Fenton who have been indulging in another stolen
interview slip behind the screen. Ford searches everywhere for Falstaff
in vain, and is beginning to despair of finding him, when the sound of a
kiss behind the screen arrests his attention. He approaches it
cautiously, and thrusts it aside only to find his daughter in Fenton's
arms. Meanwhile Mr