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knighthood and his eloquence
but he’s in for a surprise. The very
biddable housewives who he thinks
will make easy pickings, mistresses
Page and Ford, quickly turn the
tables on him and he is humiliated
again and again.
What makes Falstaff so appealing
is the manner in which he bounces
back from each setback with
irrepressible optimism. Even at
the end, when made a complete fool
in the forest, he has a comeback—
“Have I lived to stand at the
taunt of one that makes fritters of
English?” (5.5.141–142). Throughout
the play, his wit shines while
all the other men mangle language
so badly that it is often impossible
for modern audiences to follow.
Mangled words
There are malapropisms and
mispronunciations galore—and
they are frequently bawdy. Mistress
Quickly laments, “she does so take
on with her men; they mistook their
erection” (presumably meaning
“direction”), to which Falstaff
ruefully responds, “So did I mine,
to build upon a foolish woman’s
promise” (3.5.39–40). While when
Hugh Evans is teaching the boy
William his Latin, he talks of the
“focative” case, not the vocative,
saying, “Remember, William,
focative is caret”—to which
Mistress Quickly knowingly replies,
“And that’s a good root” (4.1.48–49).
Most of the play is about the
wives asserting their control over
the town. They are not easily
fooled, and they are worthy of more
respect than their husbands give
them. They show, too, that they
have a great sense of fun. But
having fun does not make them
disreputable; they do not have to
be melancholy nuns or unattractive
prudes to be good wives. As
Mistress Page says, “Wives may be
merry, and yet honest, too” (4.2.95).THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN
A triumph for love
Yet even as the wives come out on
top with their husband’s apologies
and Falstaff’s humiliation, they are
caught by surprise, as Fenton and
Anne show the real victor to be
love. While the wives have been off
teaching the men a lesson and the
Pages have been trying to set up
their daughter Anne in marriages
she doesn’t want, Anne has eloped
with Fenton. “You would have
married [Anne], most shamefully, /
Where there was no proportion held
in love” (5.5.213–214), Fenton tells
them, and stresses how their love
match will save Anne from “A
thousand irreligious cursèd hours /
Which forcèd marriage would have
brought upon her” (5.5.221–222).
The message still resonates today. ■In this 2008 production at the
Globe Theatre, London, Christopher
Benjamin’s self-deluding Falstaff thinks
he sees the “leer of invitation.”