Ford

Play

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Summary

Master Ford is the jealous Windsor gentleman who, unlike his friend Page, cannot believe his wife would resist Falstaff's advances. He disguises himself as "Master Brook" and pays Falstaff to woo Mistress Ford, hoping to catch her in the act. His jealousy drives him to increasingly frantic searches of his house and a brief confrontation with a laundry basket of dirty clothes. Crucially, his jealousy is comic rather than tragic — a bourgeois delusion cured by laughter and public embarrassment, contrasting sharply with Othello's destructive variant.

Notable Quotations

"I will rather trust a Fleming with my butter, Parson Hugh the Welshman with my cheese, an Irishman with my aqua-vitae bottle, or a thief to walk my ambling gelding, than my wife with herself." *(2.2)*

"See the hell of having a false woman! My bed shall be abused, my coffers ransacked, my reputation gnawn at." *(3.2)*

Cross-references

• The Merry Wives of Windsor — the play
• Comedies
• character_mistress_ford — his wife
• character_mistress_page — his wife's co-conspirator
• character_falstaff — the target of the wives' scheme and his jealous obsession