Go your ways, and ask of Doctor Caius’ house which is the way. And
there dwells one Mistress Quickly, which is in the manner of his nurse,
or his dry nurse, or his cook, or his laundry, his washer and his
wringer.
Go on your way and ask for directions to Doctor Caius' house. There lives a woman named Mistress Quickly, who works for him in many capacities—as his nurse, his assistant, his cook, his laundry worker, washer, and general helper.
Go find Doctor Caius' place and ask for directions. There's a woman named Mistress Quickly who works for him—she's basically his nurse, his assistant, his cook, his laundry worker, everything.
go find doctor caius. ask mistress quickly. she works for him doing everything
Elizabethan courtship ran on intermediaries. Direct declarations of love between social equals were considered forward and slightly embarrassing — you sent a letter, had it delivered by a trusted servant, and awaited word back through the same channel. Mistress Quickly makes a living (and a comedy) of being everyone's go-between simultaneously. The comedy of Merry Wives depends on the audience understanding that this network of proxies means nobody actually knows what anyone else is doing — Quickly can tell each party something slightly different, and nobody compares notes. Except for Mistresses Ford and Page, who immediately compare notes.
Well, sir.
Well, sir.
well, sir.
well, sir.
Nay, it is petter yet. Give her this letter. For it is a ’oman that
altogether’s acquaintance with Mistress Anne Page; and the letter is to
desire and require her to solicit your master’s desires to Mistress
Anne Page. I pray you be gone. I will make an end of my dinner; there’s
pippins and cheese to come.
No, better yet. Give her this letter. She's a woman who knows Mistress Anne Page very well; the letter is asking her to help encourage Mistress Anne Page to accept your master's desires toward her. I ask you to go now. I want to finish my dinner; there are apples and cheese still coming.
No, wait—something even better. Give this letter to Mistress Quickly. She knows Mistress Anne Page really well, and the letter asks her to help convince Anne to accept your master's offer. Now get going, I want to finish eating. There's apples and cheese on the way.
better idea give her this letter. she knows anne. it asks her to convince anne about ur master. go i'm eating
The Reckoning
A tiny scene — barely sixty words of dialogue — that sets up the chain of messengers and go-betweens that will drive the play's comedy. Evans is running Slender's romantic campaign through a proxy who is going to another proxy, which tells you everything about how romantic this courtship is. What the scene establishes is that everyone in Windsor is connected to everyone else through Mistress Quickly.
If this happened today…
A manager who doesn't want to write a reference letter himself has his assistant hand-deliver a note to someone else's assistant asking them to put in a good word with HR. The efficiency gains are unclear.