Merry Wives of Windsor

by William Shakespeare and William Hazlitt

Book Overview

"I feel that I have spent half my career with one or another Pelican Shakespeare in my back pocket. Convenience, however, is the least important aspect of the new Pelican Shakespeare series. Here is an elegant and clear text for either the study or the rehearsal room, notes where you need them and the distinguished scholarship of the general editors, Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller who understand that these are plays for performance as well as...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0416476902
• ISBN13: 9780416476903
• Release Date: January 1971
• Publisher: Methuen Publishing
• Length: 149 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

Great bawdy fun

Mistress Ford and Mistress Page are be badgered by the lecherous Falstaff, how to arrange a happy ending? As the husband of the object of Falstaff's passion disguises himself as a servant to divine the plans of the villain, the ladies defend their honor by inviting the advances of Falstaff. This is the Bard's comedy on a good day. Despite the challenges of the original language, I chuckled my way through this story/script. In the end, Falstaff got what he deserve (no sexy time with the good ladies and several beatings), the ladies' honor was preserved, and their husbands saw the highest qualities of their wives. I loved it, and recommend it highly. I just wish this one would be put on stage more often. E.M. Van Court

One of my favourites with Falstaff

I certainly don't agree with many of the reviews of this play. To me it is one of Shakespeare's funniest. I truly enjoyed it. One of my favourite Shakespearean characters is Falstaff, and he appears in a number of Shakespeare's comedies. He makes an appearance in this one, and he is wonderful. The scene of this play is in Windsor, England. The play follows the merry wives in their interactions with their husbands and with their families and servants. This play is unique too, because we see Falstaff in love in this one. This may be one of Shakespeare's lesser known comedies, but it should be read and enjoyed. Don't let some of these reviews stop you from the sheer enjoyment of this play.

Shakespeare's FUNNIEST play!!!!

This is definitely Shakespeare's funniest play. This play doesn't have the great quotes or great drama or great romance or any great meaning, but it is just simply hilarious. Sir John Falstaff is one of the greatest comedic characters in all of literature and does not disappoint in this play. 'The Merchant of Venice' is great if you are looking for a 'Comedy' with meaning and social significance, but if you simply want to laugh your butt off you have to read 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'.

I read this book and it brought me laughableness a lot.

The Merry Wives of Windsor is loved by many people in the world because of the plentiful expressions, skillful characters' description and the natural laughable. It is not only a common comedy, but also a signpost from that we can see many things of the Elizabethan age when the author-William Shakespeare- lived. And this is one of the few works that he composed by himself, in other words, there are no any source to create it. The reason of coming into existence about this is unique and interesting. When Queen Elizabeth watched one of his historical plays (Henry the fourth), she was very pleased with John Falstaff in the play, then she ordered Shakespeare that he would make John be a hero and have him love in another play. It is said that the beginning of the story. There are lots of characters in the play as the other Shakespeare's works. The whole content is, Sir John Falstaff falls in love with Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, but the two mistresses make plan of ill-treating to him to refuse his love and to show their faithful and virtuous hearts to their husbands. Meanwhile, Fenton(a young gentleman), Slender(a country justice's kinsman) and Doctor Caius(a French physician) are all in love with Anne(daughter of Page and Mistress Page), and they think for wining her love respectively. At the end of the story, after Mr. and Mrs. Ford, Mr. and Mrs. Page and others make plans and ill-treat to Falstaff in the woods, all of them get reconciled with, while Anne Page get married with Fenton, and come to an end with joy. Besides them, some people who have strong personalities appear on the stage. For example, Mistress Quickly(Caius' servant) has a ready wit but a little stupid, or Sir Hugh Evans(a Welsh parson) who always speaks in rural accent but it makes us fanny and he plays an active part at the end of this play. We could see Shakespeare's genius in this play for there has many puns and unique accent which used by Hugh Evans. And it bring more cheerful mood to the play and laugh to the audience. Shakespeare described many men who is jealous of their wives or lovers in his works, and one of them is Mr. Ford who appears in this play. He has faith in his wife's affair and it brings some troubles. When this work was written, a woman generally could not get married to a man if he was not permitted by her father. However the times went by, many Pulitans came to insist that men and women could get married only when they loved each other. Fenton has also the pulitanical view for marriage. It was a new thought and I think Anne Page was attracted to his such way of thinking as well as his other good points. Also at that time in England, there was a tendency for every people to criticize about things which were against the social morals through passages of caricatures. For example, it was a fashion of the time for women to wear trousers but people criticized it, or they criticized for jealousy and affairs. In this play, Joh

I read this book and it brought me laughableness a lot.

Book Report The Merry Wives of Windsor The Merry Wives of Windsor is loved by many people in the world because of the plentiful expressions, skillful characters' description and the natural laughable. It is not only a common comedy, but also a signpost from that we can see many things of the Elizabethan age when the author-William Shakespeare- lived. And this is one of the few works that he composed by himself, in other words, there are no any source to create it. The reason of coming into existence about this is unique and interesting. When Queen Elizabeth watched one of his historical plays (Henry the fourth), she was very pleased with John Falstaff in the play, then she ordered Shakespeare that he would make John be a hero and have him love in another play. It is said that the beginning of the story. There are lots of characters in the play as the other Shakespeare's works. The whole content is, Sir John Falstaff falls in love with Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, but the two mistresses make plan of ill-treating to him to refuse his love and to show their faithful and virtuous hearts to their husbands. Meanwhile, Fenton(a young gentleman), Slender(a country justice's kinsman) and Doctor Caius(a French physician) are all in love with Anne(daughter of Page and Mistress Page), and they think for wining her love respectively. At the end of the story, after Mr. and Mrs. Ford, Mr. and Mrs. Page and others make plans and ill-treat to Falstaff in the woods, all of them get reconciled with, while Anne Page get married with Fenton, and come to an end with joy. Besides them, some people who have strong personalities appear on the stage. For example, Mistress Quickly(Caius' servant) has a ready wit but a little stupid, or Sir Hugh Evans(a Welsh parson) who always speaks in rural accent but it makes us fanny and he plays an active part at the end of this play. We could see Shakespeare's genius in this play for there has many puns and unique accent which used by Hugh Evans. And it bring more cheerful mood to the play and laugh to the audience. Shakespeare described many men who is jealous of their wives or lovers in his works, and one of them is Mr. Ford who appears in this play. He has faith in his wife's affair and it brings some troubles. When this work was written, a woman generally could not get married to a man if he was not permitted by her father. However the times went by, many Pulitans came to insist that men and women could get married only when they loved each other. Fenton has also the pulitanical view for marriage. It was a new thought and I think Anne Page was attracted to his such way of thinking as well as his other good points. Also at that time in England, there was a tendency for every people to criticize about things which were against the social morals through passages of caricatures. For example, it was a fashion of the time for women to wear trousers but people criticized it, or