his wigs, and the benefit of his long research and study of the rôle, making the condition that I would spend three days at his place at Cohasset tutoring under him, another instance of very great kindness shown a young actor by a great one.
We spent most of those three days on his yacht. Crane explained to me that "Merry Wives of Windsor" was a very imperfectly constructed play, and how Shakespeare had written it in three weeks at the royal behest of Queen Elizabeth, who had enjoyed Falstaff so hugely in "Henry IV" that she demanded a play showing the rascal in love.
"You have an impossible thing to do," Crane told me. "Mistress Ford and Mistress Page have deliberately had you dumped into the Thames. Dame Quickly comes to lure you back, and within her speech of eight lines you must evidence, plausibly, a change from bitter determination never to see Page and Ford again to an eager willingness. Dame Quickly can help you tremendously in making this incredible mental switch seem convincing. By the way, who is she?"
"Oh, just some amateur Saratoga chip," I replied breezily.
[125]
