one a Venetian merchant, the other a Trojan prince -
are washed up on the shores of the Forest of Arden.
When Angelo is chased off by a bear wearing
yellow stockings, the prince (who calls himself Falstaff
but whose real name is Beatrice) encounters Puck,
a fairy-like shrew, who enchants the woods to march
on the nearby hamlet of Dunsinane. There, Falstaff meets
a passing traitorous Roman senator, who tells him
of a blind, hunchbacked tyrant named Henry VI,
ruler of three parts of the kingdom, alongside Henry IV
(two parts), Henry V, Henry VIII, a couple of Richards,
and John who have one part each. The king, fearful
of a merger between powerful rival families, has abducted
two star-crossed teenagers and cooked them in a pie.
On his way to avenge these crimes, Falstaff falls in love
with a shepherdess called Goneril (but who is really
Antiphonus, eldest son of Henry VI) and woos her
through the recital of one hundred and fifty-four sonnets.
Upon reaching the court, Falstaff takes advantage
of the disloyalty of Henry's general, Iago, to overthrow
the king, who runs away to a cave and kills himself by asp.
Goneril succeeds to the throne - and Falstaff becomes
his queen - following a joyful double wedding
with Angelo and the yellow-stockinged bear,
who have also fallen in love (just as the three witches
had prophesied), and all's well that ends well.
