Merry Wives of Windsor - Act V

[Scheherazade]

Please post your comments and questions in this thread.

Scene I

Scene II

Scene III

Scene IV

Scene V

[lugdunum]

Finished the play! I thought it was a very funny play. These women had a great time making fun of John Falstaff. I particularly liked the last trick when they tell him to walk through the forest dressed up as a deer and pretend there are fairies and elves attacking him....

I didn't really understand some passages, like why does the Host organise a false fight between the Welsh and he French.... This was a bit confusing...

The only thing I regret is that I read a summary of the plot before starting and it kind of ruined it.

I'll be happy to discuss it with anyone... though it seems that you've all given up!!

[Virgil]

I haven't given up. Well, I've gone over Act V Scene 5 several times now and it is hilarious. It certainly must be funny acted out on stage.

Like I said in the Act IV thread, the climax of the Falstaff part of the drama is set within a folklore context, first with Falstaff dressed as Herne the Hunter, a folk ghost of Windsor forest, and second with a fairy and elf ritual expurgation of an evil spirit. Here is something on Herne the Hunter:

Herne is said to have been a huntsman in the employ of King Richard II (reigned 1377-1399) in and around Windsor Forest. He saved the King's life when he was attacked by a cornered white hart, but was mortally wounded himself in the process. A local wizard brought him back to health using his magical powers, which entailed tying the dead animal's antlers on Herne's head. In return, however, Herne had to give up his hunting skills. The other king's huntsmen framed him as a thief. As a result he lost the favour of the king. He was found the next day, hanging dead from a lone oak tree. That same oak tree is in the Home Park at Windsor Castle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herne_the_Hunter.

What is particular funny and significant I think is (1) the association of metamorphic transmutations with Falstaff dressed with his Herne antlers and (2) the sexual puns that brings the comedy to a low, sinful level that requires some sort of expurgation.

FALSTAFF
The Windsor bell hath struck twelve; the minute
draws on. Now, the hot-blooded gods assist me!
Remember, Jove, thou wast a bull for thy Europa; love
set on thy horns. O powerful love! that, in some
respects, makes a beast a man, in some other, a man
a beast. You were also, Jupiter, a swan for the love
of Leda. O omnipotent Love! how near the god drew
to the complexion of a goose! A fault done first in
the form of a beast. O Jove, a beastly fault! And
then another fault in the semblance of a fowl; think
on 't, Jove; a foul fault! When gods have hot
backs, what shall poor men do? For me, I am here a
Windsor stag; and the fattest, I think, i' the
forest. Send me a cool rut-time, Jove, or who can
blame me to piss my tallow? Who comes here? my
doe?

Enter MISTRESS FORD and MISTRESS PAGE

MISTRESS FORD
Sir John! art thou there, my deer? my male deer?

FALSTAFF
My doe with the black scut! Let the sky rain
potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green
Sleeves, hail kissing-comfits and snow eringoes; let
there come a tempest of provocation, I will shelter me here.

MISTRESS FORD
Mistress Page is come with me, sweetheart.

FALSTAFF
Divide me like a bribe buck, each a haunch: I will
keep my sides to myself, my shoulders for the fellow
of this walk, and my horns I bequeath your husbands.
Am I a woodman, ha? Speak I like Herne the hunter?
Why, now is Cupid a child of conscience; he makes
restitution. As I am a true spirit, welcome!

And then the "fairies" and "elves" enter. Interesting how the play's language goes imabic pentameter and at times with rhymes, I think for the first time in the entire play. Here's Mistress Quickly disguised as a fairy.

MISTRESS QUICKLY
About, about;
Search Windsor Castle, elves, within and out:
Strew good luck, ouphes, on every sacred room:
That it may stand till the perpetual doom,
In state as wholesome as in state 'tis fit,
Worthy the owner, and the owner it.
The several chairs of order look you scour
With juice of balm and every precious flower:
Each fair instalment, coat, and several crest,
With loyal blazon, evermore be blest!
And nightly, meadow-fairies, look you sing,
Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring:
The expressure that it bears, green let it be,
More fertile-fresh than all the field to see;
And 'Honi soit qui mal y pense' write
In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue and white;
Let sapphire, pearl and rich embroidery,
Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee:
Fairies use flowers for their charactery.
Away; disperse: but till 'tis one o'clock,
Our dance of custom round about the oak
Of Herne the hunter, let us not forget.

What is interesting is that the elves are carrying lit tapers, which gives it a religious connotation and when they burn Falstaff to see if he's a man or a ghost, it's an allusion to a hell purification by fire.

SIR HUGH EVANS
Pray you, lock hand in hand; yourselves in order set
And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be,
To guide our measure round about the tree.
But, stay; I smell a man of middle-earth.

FALSTAFF
Heavens defend me from that Welsh fairy, lest he
transform me to a piece of cheese!

PISTOL
Vile worm, thou wast o'erlook'd even in thy birth.

MISTRESS QUICKLY
With trial-fire touch me his finger-end:
If he be chaste, the flame will back descend
And turn him to no pain; but if he start,
It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.

PISTOL
A trial, come.

SIR HUGH EVANS
Come, will this wood take fire?

They burn him with their tapers

FALSTAFF
Oh, Oh, Oh!

And the elves and fairies sing a wonderful chanting song as they do this:

MISTRESS QUICKLY
Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in desire!
About him, fairies; sing a scornful rhyme;
And, as you trip, still pinch him to your time.
SONG.
Fie on sinful fantasy!
Fie on lust and luxury!
Lust is but a bloody fire,
Kindled with unchaste desire,
Fed in heart, whose flames aspire
As thoughts do blow them, higher and higher.
Pinch him, fairies, mutually;
Pinch him for his villany;
Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about,
Till candles and starlight and moonshine be out.

During this song they pinch FALSTAFF. DOCTOR CAIUS comes one way, and steals away a boy in green; SLENDER another way, and takes off a boy in white; and FENTON comes and steals away ANN PAGE. A noise of hunting is heard within. All the Fairies run away. FALSTAFF pulls off his buck's head, and rises

This must all be hilarious to watch, and they have symblically sacrificed the goat (the antlered Falstaff) for spiritual purification. Also it's interesting how they burn him with candlesticks and throughout the play there have been many references to Falstaff's fat as tallow.

And then there is a revelation that it is all a joke on Falstaff and he comes to an enlightment when the fairies and elves are revealed.

MISTRESS FORD
Sir John, we have had ill luck; we could never meet.
I will never take you for my love again; but I will
always count you my deer.

FALSTAFF
I do begin to perceive that I am made an ***.

FORD
Ay, and an ox too: both the proofs are extant.

FALSTAFF
And these are not fairies? I was three or four
times in the thought they were not fairies: and yet
the guiltiness of my mind, the sudden surprise of my
powers, drove the grossness of the foppery into a
received belief, in despite of the teeth of all
rhyme and reason, that they were fairies. See now
how wit may be made a Jack-a-Lent, when 'tis upon
ill employment!

SIR HUGH EVANS
Sir John Falstaff, serve Got, and leave your
desires, and fairies will not pinse you.

FORD
Well said, fairy Hugh.

"I do begin to perceive that I am made an ***," Falstaff says. And it's been all in good fun while holding up Falstaff to be the butt of jokes that sets things back to the moral norm:

MISTRESS PAGE
Why Sir John, do you think, though we would have the
virtue out of our hearts by the head and shoulders
and have given ourselves without scruple to hell,
that ever the devil could have made you our delight?

And finally the sub plot of Fenton marrying Anne comes to a conclusion by the tricks played to fool Slender and Dr. Caius. Fenton's explanation brings the situation to moral clarity:

FENTON
You do amaze her: hear the truth of it.
You would have married her most shamefully,
Where there was no proportion held in love.
The truth is, she and I, long since contracted,
Are now so sure that nothing can dissolve us.
The offence is holy that she hath committed;
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.

Anne's parent's would have married her shamefully because their selections for her husband were not in "proportion." It would have been an "irreligious" match. And so society and nature is brought back to balance and the play concludes.

Though not a great play, but I found it very enjoyable.

[lugdunum]

This must all be hilarious to watch, and they have symblically sacrificed the goat (the antlered Falstaff) for spiritual purification. Also it's interesting how they burn him with candlesticks and throughout the play there have been many references to Falstaff's fat as tallow.

That's what I thought when I read that passge! This must be a funny scene to watch!

Though not a great play, but I found it very enjoyable.

I can't really compare since I haven't read many other plays but I found it quite enjoyable!
The only thing is that I had read a synopsis before starting and this kinda ruined it for me.