The Merry Wives of Windsor
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The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare featuring the fat knight Falstaff.
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Date and origin
The play's date of composition is unknown; it was registered for publication in 1602, but was probably several years old by that date. Textual allusions to the Order of the Garter suggest that the play may have been intended for performance in April 1597, prior to the installation in May of the Knights-Elect of that order at Windsor; if so, it was probably performed when Elizabeth I attended Garter Feast on April 23rd. This was not necessarily the premiere; presumably, the play was also staged at the public theatre).
The Garter theory is only speculation, but it is corroborated by a story first recorded by John Dennis in 1702: that Shakespeare was commanded to write the play by Queen Elizabeth, who wanted to see Falstaff in love.
Synopsis
The play anachronistically places Sir John Falstaff, companion of the medieval King Henry V, in the contemporary setting of the Elizabethan era. Falstaff arrives in Windsor to obtain financial advantage by courting two wealthy married women, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. These "merry wives" are not interested in the aging, overweight Falstaff as a suitor; however, for the sake of their own amusement, and to gain revenge for his indecent assumptions towards them both, they pretend to respond to his advances.
This results in great embarrassment for Falstaff; at one point, he is forced by the jealous Mr Ford to hide in a laundry basket and then thrown into the river. Although this affects Falstaff's pride, his ego is surprisingly resilient. He is convinced that the wives are just 'playing hard to get' with him, so he continues his pursuit of sexual advancement, with its attendant capital and opportunities for blackmail.
Eventually, however, his scheme is revealed and he is held up to ridicule, initially by the "merry wives", but eventually by the whole town. This type of embarrassment not only affects his ego, but also his already badly damaged reputation.
The play ends with the marriage of Mistress Page's daughter, Anne Page, to Master Fenton, whom she has been in love with for a long while. Her father would not permit her to wed Master Fenton for some time, due to his having squandered his considerable fortune on high-class living. Despite this, Master Fenton is the only successful lover in the play.
List of Characters
- SIR JOHN FALSTAFF
- FENTON, a young gentleman
- SHALLOW, a country justice
- SLENDER, cousin to Shallow
- FORD, Gentleman dwelling at Windsor
- PAGE, Gentleman dwelling at Windsor
- WILLIAM PAGE, a boy, son to Page
- SIR HUGH EVANS, a Welsh parson
- DOCTOR CAIUS, a French physician
- HOST of the Garter Inn
- BARDOLPH, PISTOL, NYM, Followers of Falstaff
- ROBIN, page to Falstaff
- SIMPLE, servant to Slender
- RUGBY, servant to Doctor Caius
- MISTRESS FORD
- MISTRESS PAGE
- MISTRESS ANNE PAGE, her daughter, in love with Fenton
- MISTRESS QUICKLY, servant to Doctor Caius
- SERVANTS to Page, Ford, etc.
Themes
Key themes of Merry Wives include love and marriage, jealousy and revenge, class and wealth. Explored with irony, sexual innuendo, sarcasm, and stereotypical views of classes and nationalities, these themes help to give the play something closer to a modern-day view than is often found in Shakespeare's plays.
The play is centered around the class prejudices of middle-class England. The lower class is represented by characters such as Bardolph, Pistol and Nim (Falstaffs followers), and the upper class is represented by Sir John Falstaff and Master Fenton. Shakespeare uses both Latin and misused English to represent the attitudes and differences of the people of this era. Much of the comedic effect of the play is derived from misunderstandings between characters.
Links to other plays
The play's central character, Falstaff, also appears in Shakespeare's historic plays Henry IV, part 1, Henry IV, part 2 and Henry V. If the 1597 date is correct, Merry Wives was written between parts 1 and 2 of Henry IV.
Merry Wives is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary English life.
Reputation
Most critics consider Merry Wives to be one of Shakespeare's weaker plays, and the Falstaff of Merry Wives to be much inferior to the Falstaff of the two Henry IV plays. That Shakespeare would so stumble with one of his greatest creations is puzzling, and a satisfactory reason for this remains to be found. The likeliest explanation, if the Garter Feast theory is accepted, is that the play was written hastily, to order for a special occasion, within severe time restraints.
Trivia
- The play alludes to a German duke, who is generally thought to be Frederick, Duke of Württemberg, who had been elected to the Order of the Garter in 1597 (and who was eventually only installed in Stuttgart on November 6, 1603).
- During the period of anti-German feelings in England during World War One, many German names and titles were changed given more English-sounding names, including the royal family's from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor. In response to this, Kaiser Wilhelm II jokingly said that all future performances of 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' should be re-named 'The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.'
Adaptations
- It has been suggested that some elements of The Merry Wives of Windsor may have been adapted from Il Pecerone, a collection of stories by Ser Giovanni.
- The play was revised and adapted by John Dennis in 1702 as The Comical Gallant.
- Giuseppe Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, with a libretto by Arrigo Boito, is based on the play, although, as with most operas adapted from the theatre, there are significant differences as to characters and plot.
External links
- The Merry Wiues of Windsor - HTML version of this title.
- The Merry Wives of Windsor - plain vanilla text from Project Gutenberg
