Falstaff has thoroughly fallen for the lies that Mistress Quickly has told him, and he proudly compliments himself (at line 128). Master Ford, disguised as Master Brooke, then enters the Garter Inn and buys Falstaff some wine. Ford then proceeds to tell the knight that he wishes to enlist Falstaff’s aid in helping him to pursue a married woman whom he is in love with. Brooke then tells him that the married woman is Mistress Ford. Brooke offers Falstaff a large sum of money if he will assist him in winning the love of this woman. Brooke adds that he has already spent an enormous amount of money on gifts for Mistress Ford, but she continues to reject him. Brooke then sadly concludes that the only gain he has made is experience, the experience of an unrequited (or unfulfilled) lover; and Brooke condenses this idea in a short poem:
Love like a shadow flies when substance love pursues,
Pursuing that that flies, and flying what pursues. (185-86)
Brooke means that when a person in love pursues or chases another person who does not return that love, then love is like a shadow. It is dark and insubstantial. The pursuer grabs on to nothing but cold air. The pursuer has won nothing. The second line contributes to this meaning: the pursued person flees or runs away from the pursuer (the words fleeing