Sir John Falstaff enters Windsor Park. He is wearing horns on his head and the Herne the Hunter costume. Feeling rather foolish, Falstaff reminds himself that in classical mythology the Roman god Jove (short for Jupiter and the equivalent to the Greek god Zeus: the stories appear in Ovid’s Metamorphoses) transformed himself into a bull on one occasion and into a swan on another so that he could have affairs with mortal women without being seen by his jealous wife, the goddess Juno (the Greek Hera). Falstaff comments that a swan is not much different than a goose, and acting like a goose means acting foolishly. Thus, even the great king of the gods acted foolishly because of his lust. Falstaff then observes, “When gods have hot backs, what shall poor men do?” (9-10). The expression “hot backs” means lustful: men are not as powerful or as wise as the gods, so they should not be blamed for having the same faults.
Falstaff is pleased to see Mistress Ford approach him, and he affectionately refers to her as “my doe with the black scut” (16). The scut refers to the tail of the female deer, but it is also slang for pubic hair. Since Falstaff is wearing the horns of a stag, the doe is an appropriate nickname for his lover. Falstaff announces that he is ready for a sexual encounter when he shouts, “Let the sky rain potatoes” (16). He is referring to sweet potatoes, which were commonly believed to be an aphrodisiac (an object that stimulates sexual activity) during the