Is the grievance of Shallow against Falstaffe a necessity of the plot to show the fat knight in love, or an episode introduced out of Shakespeare's grudge towards Sir Thomas Lucy? (See pp. 117-119, 138-141, etc., "First Folio Edition.") THE STORY OF ACT II THE MERRY WIVES AND FORD LAY PLOTS In Act II a third under-intrigue that of Ford with Falstaffe is added to the two before introduced. Show how the Merry Wives reveal their separate personalities in their reception of the duplicate letters, and their plot to dupe Falstaffe. Contrast their two husbands as their natures and marital relations are shown by their different manner of taking the information given them by Nym and Pistol. Ford, considered as Shakespeare's first study of jealousy. How does he compare with Leontes? How does Ford assist in the plot of the Play? What pertinence to Ford's jealousy is there in the allusion to Queen Elizabeth's Sonnet? (II, ii, 199-200). The Sources of the Merry Wives' intrigue and what Shakespeare has done with them. (See "Sources," First Folio Edition). How is the Duel scene related to the underplot? What characters belong in common to plot and counterplot? QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION Does Falstaffe show any material differences in character as he appears in this Play, in comparison with the way he appears in "Henry IV?" THE STORY OF ACT III THE DOUBLE DUPERY Contrast the feelings of Falstaffe before and after the Buckbasket episode? In which scene is Ford the worst duped? Give an account of Dame Quickly's relations to the intrigues, and show how her multitudinous offices as go-between interfere with each other so that she is "slacke" in one of her errands. What is the effect of her slackness on the contradictions in the time of the action. (See Duration of the Action, in "First Folio Edition"). Are they only seeming contradictions? The Sources of the Ford intrigue and what Shakespeare has done with them. Anne and her father and mother as characterized in this act, with relation to the suitors. QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION Is Anne the only character one can thoroughly sympathize with? Are the situations such as owe their fun largely to coincidence, like those in the "Comedie of Errors," or to a teeming variousness in the human naturalness of all the characters? THE STORY OF ACT IV FORD'S ENLIGHTENMENT Why is the Old Woman of Brentford trick a climax upon that of the Buckbasket?