focative is also an obscene word. Finally, when Evans asks the student about the genitive case (for possessives), the boy responds with “horum, harem, horum” (52). Instead of genitive Mistress Quickly hears the word genitals, and instead of horum the housekeeper hears the word whore. Mistress Quickly thus criticizes the parson for teaching obscenities, and Evans responds with “Thou art as foolish Christian creatures as I would desires” (60-61).
The scene ends with Evans telling Mistress Page that her son is a good scholar.
The entire scene functions to fill in the time while Falstaff is proceeding to keep his second rendezvous with Mistress Ford. The scene, though, also functions to serve as social criticism of the school system with its emphasis on rote memorization. And it probably is not just coincidence that the first name of Mistress Page’s son is the same as the first name of the playwright.