plaining of the
ill treatment he has received from the fat Knight and his followers,
but without obtaining any satisfaction. After his departure, Falstaff
seeks to induce Bardolph and Pistol to carry his love-letters to
Mistresses Ford and Page; but they refuse, upon the ground that their
honor would be assailed, which gives occasion for the introduction of
the monologue from "Henry IV." The letters are finally intrusted to a
page, and the remainder of the act is devoted to the plots of the
women to circumvent him, with an incidental revelation of the loves of
Fenton and Nannetta, or Anne Page. In the second act, we have
Falstaff's visit to Mistress Ford, as planned by the merry wives, the
comical episode of his concealment in the buck-basket, and his dumping
into the Thames. In the last act, undaunted by his buck-basket
experiences, Falstaff accepts a fresh invitation to meet Mistress Ford
in Windsor Park. In this episode occurs the fairy masquerade at
Herne's Oak, in the midst of which he is set upon and beaten, ending
in his complete discomfiture. Then all is explained to him; Nannetta
is betrothed to Fenton; and all ends merry as a marriage bell.

There is no overture. After four bars of prelude the curtain rises,
and the composer introduces Dr. Caius with the single exclamation,
"Falstaff," and the latter's reply, "Ho! there," which are emblematic
of the declamatory character of the whole opera; for although many
delightful bits of melody are scattered through it, the
instrumentation really tells the story, as in the Wagner music-drama,
though in this latest work of the veteran composer there is less of
the Wagnerian idea than in his "Aida." The first scene is mainly
humorous dialogue, but there are two notable exceptions,--the genuine
lyrical music of Falstaff's song ("'Tis she with eyes like stars"),
and the Honor monologue, a superb piece of recitative with a
characteristic accompaniment in which the clarinets and bassoons
fairly talk, as they give the negative to the Knight's sarcastic
questions. The most attractive numbers of the second scene are
Mistress Ford's reading of Falstaff's letter, which is exquisitely
lyrical, a quartet, a capella, for the four women ("He'll surely come
courting"), followed by a contrasting male quartet ("He's a foul, a
ribald thief"), the act closing with the two quartets offsetting each
other, and enclosing an admirable solo for Fenton.

The second act opens with the interview b