Mistress Page is walking down the street with Robin, Falstaff’s youthful servant. Robin declares that he would rather work for Mistress Page than for Falstaff.
The two encounter Master Ford, and Mistress Page informs him that she is going to see Mistress Ford. Ford then jokingly comments on the fact that the two wives spend so much time together:
FORD: I think if your husbands were dead you two would marry.
MISTRESS PAGE: Be sure of that – two other husbands. (11-13)
Mistress Page’s response is just a merry quip or joke as a witty response to Ford’s own joke. However, the jealous Ford reads more into it and takes it as a form of proof that the wives are having relationships with other men. Ford’s suspicions also intensify when he is informed that Robin is the servant to Falstaff.
After Mistress Page and Robin exit, Ford presents another soliloquy to express his feelings of jealousy. Ford declares that Page is a great fool because he freely allows his wife the opportunity to have an affair with Falstaff. The jealous husband declares, “A man may hear this shower sing in the wind” (30-31). The word shower literally means rain, but metaphorically Ford means that he can tell (or hear) that trouble is coming. Despite the comments to the contrary (the wind), Ford is convinced that