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FORD'S ENLIGHTENMENT

Why is the Old Woman of Brentford trick a climax upon that of the Buckbasket?

Falstaffe's wish that all the world might be cheated is true to the method of the Play. Show in exemplification of this, how a fourth intrigue grows out of the third, and is introduced as late as this fourth Act. How is the joke of the Host against Dr. Caius and Sir Hugh Evans avenged? Is this reference to the "three Cozen Jermans" that are said to run away with the Host's horses, liklier to be an allusion seriously made to a real event or to make use of it as an entirely fictitious intrigue and practical joke in the Play? Is this mock happening such as could be clear by the method of enacting it and one entirely consonant with this Comedy as a farce-mosaic of laughable tricks? (See pp. 120-121, 179-180, also Note on IV. iii. 6). Discuss probabilities. The turn taken in the plot: Show how all combine against Falstaffe; also the place of this intrigue in making material for Act V.

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