QUICKLY, MISTRESS

the colourful hostess of an Eastcheap tavern that is the setting for comic scenes in several of Shakespeare's plays. In Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V, her establishment is frequented by Falstaff and his companions, to one of whom (Nym) she is betrothed and another of whom (Pistol) she marries. She also is a comic figure in The Merry Wives of Windsor. In the latter play she is an unmarried housekeeper for Doctor Caius, and she plays a role in most of the love intrigues of the plot.