Merry Wives of Windsor Act 5 – “And this deceit loses the name of craft, Of disobedience, or unduteous title…”

Merry Wives of Windsor Act 5 –  “And this deceit loses the name of craft, Of disobedience, or unduteous title…”

“And this deceit loses the name of craft,

Of disobedience, or unduteous title,

Since therein she doth evitate and shun

A thousand irreligious cursed hours,

Which forced marriage would have brought upon her.”

‘Merry Wives of Windsor’ has some of the shortest scenes of any Shakespeare play. This helps to quicken the pace of Act 5 as well as add an almost absurd quality to the lead up to the final plan to fool Flagstaff and help true love reign supreme. What also needs to be remembered when reading the final act is that the play ultimately advocates fidelity and the message that parents should allow their daughters to make their own choices in marriage. This doesn't seem too radical but it has greater gravity when we realise Shakespeare was living away from his own wife and his own daughter was married around this time. 
This act starts off at the infamous Garter Inn where Falstaff tells Mistress Quickly about his third and upcoming attempt to seduce Mistress Ford. Mistress Quickly leaves quickly (how else would she leave) and Ford (in the disguise of Brooke) arrives and asks how things are going with Falstaff and Mistress Ford. We must remember that one of the reasons that Falstaff is meeting with Mistress Ford is so that after seducing her, he can then make her more open to the advances and affections of Brooke (Ford in disguise) so that Ford can be well and truly cuckolded. As Falstaff tells Brooke the story of the previous meeting and the beating he got, his expresses his hope that the third meeting will bring them both Mistress Ford and bring Falstaff revenge against Ford: 

“That same knave Ford, her husband…

beat me grievously… Since I plucked geese,

played truant and whipped top, I knew

not what 'twas to be beaten till lately. Follow

me: I'll tell you strange things of this knave

Ford, on whom to-night I will be revenged, and I

will deliver his wife into your hand…”

At Windsor Park, preparations are being made for the humiliation of Falstaff and the marriage/elopement of Anne Page. Page reminds Slender that he must remember that his daughter will be wearing white in the deceitful drama. Mistress Ford briefs Caius reminding him that he must look for Anne in the green garment so he can elope with her at hiatus of the frenzy in the forest. We know that Anne will be wearing neither and has her own ideas on who her husband should be. The whole ensemble of children, scheming Windsor folk and impatient potential lovers move out to Herne's Oak for their pageantry.

Herne appears at Herne’s Oak (it is in fact Falstaff with large horns on his head). It must be remembered that just a year before, this Shakespearean audience had seen ‘A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream’ so they obviously enjoyed the idea of a man running around with an animals head or horns on. The obvious sexual references would have probably meant that the actor playing Falstaff would have received a barrage of witty (and probably decidedly staid comments from the audience). It would be nice to think the same actor played Falstaff who played Bottom. Falstaff relates the stories of Gods who disguised themselves as animals to seduce human women. Mistresses Ford and Mistress Page arrive and Falstaff is delighted that his philandering hands might be able to work overtime. Just as Falstaff is getting excited, a noise is heard and the women leave as quickly as Mistress Quickly would, if she could. Supernatural creatures appear (well so Falstaff thinks so but we know that it is Evans with the children and Mistress Quickly and Anne Ford in disguise as fairies). They muster mock magic and Falstaff in fear falls to the ground to hide himself.

In the role of the Fairy Queen, Mistress Quickly waxes lyrically about the powers, potions, flowers and jewels of the fairies before she says that she smells a man and asks her fairy and creature followers to burn him. The tapers are a nice touch and the children then encircle Falstaff and, wait for it, pinch him. At the height of the pinching frenzy, Caius sneaks off with a someone wearing white who he thinks is Anne Ford, and Slender slithers away with someone in green who he thinks is Anne Ford. We see Fenton and Anne, colour blind with love, steal away to be married in secret.

The magical creatures, children in disguise, run away and just as Falstaff gets up, Ford and Mistress Ford, Page and Mistress Page appear. Falstaff is caught in the act of trying to cuckold both Ford and Page. Ford also reveals that he knew most of the plan because he was, in fact, disguised as Brooke for some of this deception. Falstaff will also lose his horses because of the money Brooke lent him. Falstaff realizes that he is not a stallion but an ass. Ford is told by Evans to trust his wife more. Falstaff is chastised by Mistress Page for thinking that a woman would think of giving up her honour and fidelity so easily. Falstaff is told he will have debts to pay in Windsor.

From the sublime to the absurd. Slender enters and declares that he was shocked to discover that he had eloped with a boy and not Anne, and then Caius enters and announces that he accidentally got married to a boy. Everyone wonders who got Anne when the newly weds Fenton and Anne enter. The Ford’s are chastised for not letting their daughter marry the man she loves. So, as they prepare for the feast, Man gets the woman he loves, even if it is really a boy in a dress.
Next: Shakespeare returns in 'Henry IV Part 2'