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T
he Merry Wives Of Windsor
is one of the most enjoyed
but least celebrated of
Shakespeare’s plays. Its tale
of a lovable rogue getting his
comeuppance at the hands of the
women he hopes to take advantage
of is a comic formula that has
been recycled again and again,
in everything from Restoration
comedies to stage farces and TV
sitcoms. The rogue is, of course,
Shakespeare’s unique creation,
the “fat knight” Sir John Falstaff.Suburban comedy
The remarkable thing, however,
is that Shakespeare’s play was one
of the originals, the blueprint for all
these later comedies. At the time
Shakespeare wrote The Merry
Wives, plays were mostly about
aristocratic, mythical, or heroic
figures. The idea of a comedy about
the foibles of a “suburban” middle
class was unheard of. Although
younger English playwrights such
as John Fletcher and Ben Jonson
quickly followed with sharp “city”
satires, the suburban comedy was
Shakespeare’s idea.
A story goes that Elizabeth I
so liked the character of Sir John
Falstaff in Henry IV part 2 that she
wanted to see “Falstaff in love,” andThe Merry Wives was Shakespeare’s
rather off-beat response. There is no
reliable source for this story, however.
Another speculative theory is that
the play was performed in front
of the queen in April 1597 in
Windsor, prior to the annual feast
for the knights of the Garter at
Windsor Castle, or that The Merry
Wives makes good the promise in
the epilogue for Henry IV Part 2
to “continue the story, with
Sir John in it.”The fat knight’s frolics
Scholars have debated the question
of when in Falstaff’s life the story is
set. It’s clearly before his reported
death in Henry V, but is it before his
drinking days in Eastcheap with
Prince Hal in Henry IV, or after? It
probably doesn’t matter, because
Shakespeare omits any reference
to 15th-century historical events in
The Merry Wives—it really feels as
if Falstaff has been plucked from
his own century and dropped amid
the citizens of Shakespeare’s time.
Falstaff is definitely the star of
the play, and the comedy comes
from this rambunctious character,
who drops into the dull world of
Windsor life and causes chaos. He
imagines he is going to lord it over
this provincial backwater with hisIN CONTEXT
THEMES
Love, fidelity, forgivenessSETTING
Windsor, a town on the
River Thames near LondonSOURCES
There are no direct sources for
the play, which was largely a
spin-off from the Henry IV plays.
It is one of the very few of
Shakespeare’s plays to be set
wholly in England, and much
of the comedy draws from
English in-jokes of the period.LEGACY
1597 The play was probably
first performed in April before
Elizabeth I at Windsor.1623 The Folio version purges
the play’s “profanities.”1786 A Russian adaptation,
by Catherine the Great herself,
is one of the rare non-English
successes of the play.1799 Italian court composer
Antonio Salieri adapts the play
as an opera, as does Guiseppe
Verdi in 1893.1902 A spectacular London
production celebrates the
coronation of Edward VII.
1985 British theater director
Bill Alexander stages an RSC
“new Elizabethan” production
set in 1950s suburbia.2012 The play is performed
in Kiswahili at the Globe to
Globe Festival in London,
which hosted 37 productions
of Shakespeare’s plays in
37 different languages.THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR
...here will be an old abusing
of God’s patience and the
King’s English!
Mistress Quickly
Act 1, Scene 4Why then, the world’s
mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open.
Pistol
Act 2, Scene 2