Product Description

The Merry Wives of Windsor was almost certainly required at short notice for a court occasion in 1597: Shakespeare threw into it all the creative energy that went into his Henry IV plays. Falstaff is here, with Pistol, Mistress Quickly, and Justice Shallow, in a spirited and warm-hearted 'citizen comedy'. Boisterous action is combined with situational irony and rich characterization. In his introduction T. W. Craik discusses the play's probable occasion (the Garter Feast of 1597 at court), its relationship to Shakespeare's English history plays and to other sources, its textual history (with particular reference to the widely diverging 1623 Folio and 1602 Quarto), and its original quality as drama. He assesses various interpretations of the play, topical, critical, and theatrical. In the commentary he pays particular attention to expounding the literal sense (he proposes some new readings) and evoking the stage business.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #258127 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Written around 1597, critics believe that The Merry Wives of Windsor was written to capitalise on the popular success of the corpulent, knavish Sir John Falstaff in the two parts of Henry IV. Falstaff takes centre stage again in this play, hard up for money and planning to pay off his debts by seducing the wives of two rich citizens, Ford and Page. As in the earlier Henry IV plays, Falstaffs elaborate plans go awry, with disastrous and humiliating consequences. Ford is furious with Falstaff's attempt to woo his wife, whilst both Mistress Ford and Mistress Page have the measure of Falstaff, and repeatedly dupe him, first hiding him in a laundry basket and dumping him in the river, then tormenting him in the forest of Windsor with children disguised as fairies.

Often dismissed as a hasty and mechanical play lacking in depth, The Merry Wives of Windsor is in fact a wonderfully inventive farce. Falstaff is a ludicrous mock hero, dressed as a mythical hunter in the forest, declaiming "powerful love that in some respects makes a beast a man, in some others a man a beast!" Mistress Ford and Page are also great comic creations, witty and resilient women who drive the comedy, no longer "in the holiday time" of beauty, but wise and streetwise women who are always one step ahead of the absurd Falstaff. A greatly underrated play. --Jerry Brotton

Customer Reviews

Women win
I enjoyed this much more than I had expected to, and indeed I enjoyed the end more than the rather slow start. It must be the closest Shakespeare gets to slapstick humour, with Falstaff getting covered in dirty laundry, dumped in the Thames, forced to disguise himself as an old woman, beaten up by the husband of one of the women he is pursuing, and then humiliated by a flock of fake fairies. I would love to see it on stage: the audio can't really catch it - though Dinsdale Landen as Falstaff in the Arkangel production grew on me, and Clive Swift as Shallow was as excellent as ever. Also Shakespeare's word play and Welsh/French accent humour really needs some stage business to illuminate it for today's audience.

The striking thing about it is (particularly after the overt and unredeemed misogyny of The Taming of the Shrew) that the women win. Mrs Page and Mrs Ford (the eponymous wives) comprehensively outflank Falstaff; Mrs Ford is a step ahead of her own husband; and while Mrs Page does suffer a defeat, it is at the hands of another woman, her own daughter.

Having just read Germaine Greer, I noted with interest that the young Anne at the centre of one of the plot lines manages to outwit two older suitors to marry the younger man whom she actually loves. There is also a young lad called William who studiously does his Latin lessons despite the older generation not really understanding him. One should of course always be careful about reading autobiography into the plays, but in this case it is impossible to avoid the temptation.