Boito's libretto is a cleverly abbreviated
version of Shakespeare's 'Merry Wives of Windsor,' with the addition of
two or three passages from 'Henry IV.' There are three acts, each of
which is divided into two scenes. The first scene takes place in the
Garter Inn at Windsor. Falstaff and his trusty followers, Bardolph and
Pistol, discomfit Dr. Caius, who comes to complain of having been
robbed. Falstaff then unfolds his scheme for replenishing his coffers
through the aid of Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page, and bids his faithful
esquires carry the famous duplicate letters to the comely dames. Honour,
however intervenes, and they refuse the office. Falstaff then sends his
page with the letters, pronounces his celebrated discourse upon honour,
and hunts Bardolph and Pistol out of the house. In the second scene, we
are in Ford's garden. The letters have arrived, and the merry wives
eagerly compare notes and deliberate upon a plan for avenging themselves
upon their elderly wooer. Dame Quickly is despatched to bid Falstaff to
an interview. Meanwhile Nannetta Ford, the 'Sweet Anne Page' of
Shakespeare, has contrived to gain a stolen interview with her lover
Fenton, while the treacherous Bardolph and Pistol are telling Ford of
their late master's designs on is wife's honour. Ford's jealousy is
easily aroused, and he makes up his mind to carry the war into the
enemy's country by visiting Falstaff in disguise.
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