Original: There is an old tale goes that Herne the hunter,
Modern: There’s an old story about Herne the hunter,

Original: Sometime a keeper here in Windsor forest,
Modern: Who was once a gamekeeper here in Windsor forest,

Original: Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight,
Modern: Who during the winter months, at the stroke of midnight,

Original: Walk round about an oak, with great ragg’d horns;
Modern: Walks around an oak tree, wearing huge jagged antlers;

Original: And there he blasts the tree and takes the cattle
Modern: And there he withers the tree and steals the cattle

Original: And makes milch-kine yield blood and shakes a chain
Modern: And makes dairy cows give blood instead of milk and rattles a chain

Original: In a most hideous and dreadful manner:
Modern: In the most horrible and terrifying way:

Original: You have heard of such a spirit, and well you know
Modern: You’ve heard of this kind of ghost, and you know very well

Original: The superstitious idle-headed eld
Modern: The superstitious foolish old people

Original: Received and did deliver to our age
Modern: Believed this story and passed it down to our generation

Original: This tale of Herne the hunter for a truth.
Modern: This story of Herne the hunter as if it were true.

In Act IV, Scene 4 of “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” the scene opens with Evans, Simple, Page, Ford, Mistress Page, Mistress Quickly, and Shallow gathered together. The group discusses the various plots and schemes that have been unfolding, particularly concerning Falstaff’s continued pursuit of the merry wives. Ford reveals that he has learned of Falstaff’s planned third attempt to meet with Mistress Ford, scheduled for between ten and eleven o’clock. The wives propose another round of public humiliation for Falstaff, suggesting they expose him in a particularly embarrassing manner to finally cure him of his foolish romantic delusions.

The conversation then shifts to the subplot involving Anne Page and her multiple suitors. Mistress Page and Master Page discuss their daughter’s marriage prospects, with each parent secretly favoring a different suitor. They devise a plan for the evening’s festivities at Herne’s Oak in Windsor Forest, where children will be disguised as fairies to frighten Falstaff. Within this chaos, both Page and his wife separately plan to have Anne stolen away and married to their preferred candidate—Page wants Slender in white, while Mistress Page prefers Doctor Caius in green. The Host and others are made aware of aspects of the plan, setting up the convergence of multiple plots that will unfold in the forest scene.

The Merry Wives of Windsor centers on the failed romantic schemes of Sir John Falstaff, who attempts to seduce two married women, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, believing he can gain access to their husbands’ wealth. Falstaff sends identical love letters to both women, not realizing they are close friends. When the wives discover his duplicitous plan, they decide to teach him a lesson by pretending to reciprocate his advances while setting elaborate traps to humiliate him.

The wives orchestrate three separate tricks against Falstaff. In the first, they arrange for him to hide in a laundry basket when Master Ford arrives home unexpectedly in a jealous rage, and Falstaff is dumped into the Thames along with the dirty laundry. In the second trick, he disguises himself as an old woman but is beaten by Ford, who despises the supposed witch. For the final humiliation, they convince Falstaff to meet them in Windsor Forest at midnight disguised as Herne the Hunter, complete with antlers, where local children dressed as fairies pinch and torment him.

Meanwhile, a subplot involves the courtship of Anne Page, daughter of Mistress Page. Three suitors compete for her hand: the wealthy but foolish Abraham Slender (favored by her father), the French physician Dr. Caius (preferred by her mother), and the young gentleman Fenton (whom Anne herself loves). The parents each secretly arrange for their preferred suitor to elope with Anne during the fairy masque in the forest. However, Anne outsmarts them all by eloping with Fenton instead, while Slender and Dr. Caius each accidentally run off with disguised boys. The play concludes with Falstaff thoroughly humbled, the Pages reconciled to their daughter’s choice of husband, and Master Ford cured of his jealousy through witnessing his wife’s virtue and wit.