Scene I: Sir John Falstaff is drinking with his servants Bardolph and Pistol when Dr Caius bursts in him and accuses him of theft. Falstaff laughs it off, but when Caius has gone, admits that he is seriously short of cash, so has hatched an (absurd) plan to seduce the wives of two wealthy men — Alice Ford and Meg Page — to get his hands on some money. He has written them both a love letter, and tasks Bardolph and Pistol with delivering them.  

Scene II: At the Ford house, Alice and Meg have received Falstaff’s love letters. They compare them and see that they are identical. Together with governess Mistress Quickly and Alice’s daughter Nannetta, they decide to teach Falstaff a lesson, and plot to send him an ‘invitation’ from Alice via Mistress Quickly… 

Meanwhile, Bardolph and Pistol warn Ford of Falstaff’s plan of seduction, and Ford decides to visit Falstaff in disguise to set a trap for him. 

Scene I: Mistress Quickly visits Falstaff and tells him that Alice will be alone at home from two o’clock until three o’clock for an rendezvous.  

After she leaves, Ford arrives in disguise as a stranger and confides his own (fictional) failed attempts to seduce Alice. Falstaff boasts that in half an hour’s time, Alice will be his, explaining he already has a secret meeting with her himself. Ford – not knowing of the ladies’ plan – is upset and jealous, but hides his feelings.  

Scene II: Back at the Ford’s, Quickly reports that Falstaff has accepted Alice’s invitation. Nannetta is unhappy because Ford is forcing her to marry old Dr Caius, but Alice, Meg and Quickly promise to prevent it so she can marry he true love, Fenton.  

Alice is then left alone to receive Falstaff who tries to impress her with tales from his youth. Meg interrupts, panicking as Ford has returned home unexpectedly. They urge Falstaff to hide in a big laundry basket. Ford, convinced that his wife has betrayed him, searches the house. Instead of Alice and Falstaff, he finds Fenton and Nannetta together! Alice orders the servants to dump the laundry basket – with its contents – into the Thames.  

Scene I: A cold and soggy Falstaff consoles himself with wine. Mistress Quickly arrives with a new invitation: Alice will meet Falstaff at the great tree in Windsor Park at midnight, where he must be disguised as the ghost of Herne the Hunter. Alice then enters to plan the midnight masquerade, assigning disguises to all.  

Ford is plotting too – he secretly tells Caius to dress as a monk, and he will marry him to Nannetta, but Mistress Quickly overhears. 

Scene II: In Windsor Park, Fenton meets Nannetta, who is disguised as Queen of the Fairies. Alice enters with a monk’s habit for Fenton to wear. Falstaff arrives as midnight chimes and Alice joins him, but he is terrified by all kinds of ‘supernatural creatures’ (the others in disguise) who torment him. Eventually everyone unmasks, except two veiled couples who step up to be married. Ford performs a double wedding, but when the couples are unveiled, he realises he has unwittingly married Nannetta to Fenton. Falstaff, pleased to find himself not the only dupe, proclaims that we are all figures of fun.