Mistress Page is walking outside with her young son William and Mistress Quickly, and they encounter Sir Hugh Evans. Mistress Page asks the parson whether her son is doing well in his study of Latin grammar. Evans then proceeds to ask questions of the young boy.
The entire scene is a comic digression, and the verbal humor of it relies upon Evans’ mispronunciation and upon Mistress Quickly’s misunderstanding of Latin terms for English words and slang. When Evans asks William the Latin word for fair, for example, the boy correctly answers “pulcher” (22). Mistress Quickly, though, thinks he is saying polecat, which is Renaissance slang for prostitute; and she wonders if the parson is teaching his students obscene language.
When Evans asks William about the masculine, feminine, and neuter Latin forms of the pronoun this, William responds with “hic, haec, hoc” (35). Evans then asks the boy, “What is the focative case, William?” (42-43). Evans is trying to say vocative case (a noun that is being used in direct address), and he then informs his pupil that “focative is caret” (45). By the word caret Evans means missing. Mistress Quickly, though, thinks he is saying carrot, which is Renaissance slang for penis. She further thinks that the mispronounced word