Merry Wives of Windsor - Act II

[Scheherazade]

Please post your comments and questions in this thread.

Scene I (http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/windsor/5/)

Scene II (http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/windsor/6/)

Scene III (http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/windsor/7/)

[lugdunum]

Finished Act II.

I'm enjoying that funny play and am finding it easier to read....

I like the fact that it seems that every character wears one of these masks with a smiling face on the front and a mean one on the other side.

Except the two "mistresses" who seem to have a great time all along.... (hence the title maybe ... hmm???).

Is anyone else still reading this?

[Janine]

I was still hoping to lugdunum. For awhile I totally lost the thread and could not locate it. Then I recalled someone helped me in one of the extension threads to understand some lines and now I can't find that either. Was it you who helped me with some quotes. My memory seems to have failed me on this one. I will try and read through Act II so we can discuss it again.

Edit: I just checked and it was in Act I thread and you were indeed the helpful person to interpret some of the lines. I had promised more. If I come up with some for Act, I will you aid me again? That was so useful and I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to my quotes. I guess I am very behind in this play but I will try and persist and move along a little faster.

[Virgil]

What strikes me in Act II is how in control the two women are of the situation. They are certainly the power center of the play. They are the only characters who are not misfits. :lol:

I found Falstaff's letters hilarious:

Reads

'Ask me no reason why I love you; for though
Love use Reason for his physician, he admits him
not for his counsellor. You are not young, no more
am I; go to then, there's sympathy: you are merry,
so am I; ha, ha! then there's more sympathy: you
love sack, and so do I; would you desire better
sympathy? Let it suffice thee, Mistress Page,--at
the least, if the love of soldier can suffice,--
that I love thee. I will not say, pity me; 'tis
not a soldier-like phrase: but I say, love me. By me,
Thine own true knight,
By day or night,
Or any kind of light,
With all his might
For thee to fight, JOHN FALSTAFF'
What terrible poetry. :lol:

And I loved Mrs. Ford's expression to get revenge:

...What tempest, I trow,
threw this whale, with so many tuns of oil in his
belly, ashore at Windsor? How shall I be revenged
on him? I think the best way were to entertain him
with hope, till the wicked fire of lust have melted
him in his own grease.
So the plot thickens with the women getting revenge on Falstaff. And if its not complicated enough, after the two husbands find out about Falstaff's plans, they will try to turn the tables on him. It's amazing how many cross currents are going on. Falstaff trying to seduce not one but two ladies, the ladies aware of this trying to trap Falstaff, and the husbands aware of Falstaff's plans trying to dcatch him, and Falstaff's crew undermining their own boss. And that's just the main plot.

Another great scene is when Mistress Quickly tells Falstaff that both of the wives are infatuated with him. We see Falstaff swell with ego.


FALSTAFF
But what says she to me? be brief, my good
she-Mercury.

MISTRESS QUICKLY
Marry, she hath received your letter, for the which
she thanks you a thousand times; and she gives you
to notify that her husband will be absence from his
house between ten and eleven.

FALSTAFF
Ten and eleven?

MISTRESS QUICKLY
Ay, forsooth; and then you may come and see the
picture, she says, that you wot of: Master Ford,
her husband, will be from home. Alas! the sweet
woman leads an ill life with him: he's a very
jealousy man: she leads a very frampold life with
him, good heart.

FALSTAFF
Ten and eleven. Woman, commend me to her; I will
not fail her.

MISTRESS QUICKLY
Why, you say well. But I have another messenger to
your worship. Mistress Page hath her hearty
commendations to you too: and let me tell you in
your ear, she's as fartuous a civil modest wife, and
one, I tell you, that will not miss you morning nor
evening prayer, as any is in Windsor, whoe'er be the
other: and she bade me tell your worship that her
husband is seldom from home; but she hopes there
will come a time. I never knew a woman so dote upon
a man: surely I think you have charms, la; yes, in truth.

FALSTAFF
Not I, I assure thee: setting the attractions of my
good parts aside I have no other charms.

MISTRESS QUICKLY
Blessing on your heart for't!

FALSTAFF
But, I pray thee, tell me this: has Ford's wife and
Page's wife acquainted each other how they love me?

MISTRESS QUICKLY
That were a jest indeed! they have not so little
grace, I hope: that were a trick indeed! but
Mistress Page would desire you to send her your
little page, of all loves: her husband has a
marvellous infection to the little page; and truly
Master Page is an honest man. Never a wife in
Windsor leads a better life than she does: do what
she will, say what she will, take all, pay all, go
to bed when she list, rise when she list, all is as
she will: and truly she deserves it; for if there
be a kind woman in Windsor, she is one. You must
send her your page; no remedy.

FALSTAFF
Why, I will.

MISTRESS QUICKLY
Nay, but do so, then: and, look you, he may come and
go between you both; and in any case have a
nay-word, that you may know one another's mind, and
the boy never need to understand any thing; for
'tis not good that children should know any
wickedness: old folks, you know, have discretion,
as they say, and know the world.
A good actor will have Falstaff growing with pride with each drop that Mistress Quickly drips. :D And when Falstaff is alone, he has an intersting little speech to himself:

FALSTAFF
Sayest thou so, old Jack? go thy ways; I'll make
more of thy old body than I have done. Will they
yet look after thee? Wilt thou, after the expense
of so much money, be now a gainer? Good body, I
thank thee. Let them say 'tis grossly done; so it be
fairly done, no matter.
"Good body, I/thank thee." He's a person who is into the pleasures of the flesh.