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Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Signet Classics (1965), Edition: 1st Printing, Paperback, 188 pages
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 itsoriginal 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.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member lyzadanger
I found this the most difficult of the comedies to read (lots of vernacular). Get a good edition with proper footnotes (endnotes would be cumbersome for this one).
LibraryThing member MrsLee
I really enjoyed this tale. The wives are my heroes and I thought the interplay between them and their husbands was honest and hilarious. I loved that they were not taken in for a minute by Falstaff's flattery. It truly is a very respectful view of women and their intelligence, I wish more modern
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authors had that respect. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookworm12
I adore Shakespeare. I’ve read at least half of his works. I’ve seen dozens of his plays performed. In college I took a class completely devoted to learning how to read and interpret his writing. I’ve visited the Globe in England and every time I read a new play of his I find a new reason to
His writing isn’t perfect. He ripped story lines from others and his plays can be repetitive. He can be long-winded when he wants to, but all-in-all, there’s more brilliance than hot air there. When Shakespeare ran out of words to express what he was feeling, he invented them! That’s just amazing. Not only did he invent words, but they are ones that stuck and that we still use today.
I love his wit. He was incredibly funny. Many of his jokes were topical, so they aren’t nearly as amusing to us as they were to audiences that lived during his lifespan. It’s like someone watching an episode of Saturday Night Live from 30 years ago and expecting to catch every joke from the weekend update.
On to the The Merry Wives of Windsor. This isn’t my favorite play, it isn’t even my favorite comedy by the Bard, but it is entertaining. It’s well-known purely because it brought back a fan-favorite, Sir John Falstaff (from the Henry IV history plays).
The basic plot is as follows, that well-loved pompous old fool, Falstaff, decides to seduce two of the married ladies in the town of Windsor. The confusion that ensues is almost like a French farce. People run in, doors slam, identities are mistaken, etc. In other words, good times.
Always the idiot, Falstaff makes the mistake of wooing two women who happen to be best friends. Mistress Ford and Mistress Page both receive love letter from the fat knight and devise a plan to trap and mock him. Mistress Ford’s husband ends up as collateral damage when he’s led to believe his wife is actually cheating on him.
What sets this play apart from his many others is the fact that it’s the only one set in contemporary (for Shakespeare) England. Most of his other plays either took place in the past or in another country. The subplot involves a husband and wife (the Pages) who are trying to marry their daughter off to men she doesn't love. The clever daughter evades her parents' wishes by coming up with a tricky solution of her own to get the man she truly loves.
If you're new to Shakespeare, see it live first! It's a play, it was meant to be seen and not just read. Once you've done that, explore the beauty of his writing. Much Ado About Nothing is a great place to start in the comedies and Hamlet remains my favorite tragedy... so far.
---One side note, if you’re looking for a definitive edition of Shakespeare, I would highly recommend the The Riverside Shakespeare. It is massive (like five inches thick), but I love it.
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love his work.His writing isn’t perfect. He ripped story lines from others and his plays can be repetitive. He can be long-winded when he wants to, but all-in-all, there’s more brilliance than hot air there. When Shakespeare ran out of words to express what he was feeling, he invented them! That’s just amazing. Not only did he invent words, but they are ones that stuck and that we still use today.
I love his wit. He was incredibly funny. Many of his jokes were topical, so they aren’t nearly as amusing to us as they were to audiences that lived during his lifespan. It’s like someone watching an episode of Saturday Night Live from 30 years ago and expecting to catch every joke from the weekend update.
On to the The Merry Wives of Windsor. This isn’t my favorite play, it isn’t even my favorite comedy by the Bard, but it is entertaining. It’s well-known purely because it brought back a fan-favorite, Sir John Falstaff (from the Henry IV history plays).
The basic plot is as follows, that well-loved pompous old fool, Falstaff, decides to seduce two of the married ladies in the town of Windsor. The confusion that ensues is almost like a French farce. People run in, doors slam, identities are mistaken, etc. In other words, good times.
Always the idiot, Falstaff makes the mistake of wooing two women who happen to be best friends. Mistress Ford and Mistress Page both receive love letter from the fat knight and devise a plan to trap and mock him. Mistress Ford’s husband ends up as collateral damage when he’s led to believe his wife is actually cheating on him.
What sets this play apart from his many others is the fact that it’s the only one set in contemporary (for Shakespeare) England. Most of his other plays either took place in the past or in another country. The subplot involves a husband and wife (the Pages) who are trying to marry their daughter off to men she doesn't love. The clever daughter evades her parents' wishes by coming up with a tricky solution of her own to get the man she truly loves.
If you're new to Shakespeare, see it live first! It's a play, it was meant to be seen and not just read. Once you've done that, explore the beauty of his writing. Much Ado About Nothing is a great place to start in the comedies and Hamlet remains my favorite tragedy... so far.
---One side note, if you’re looking for a definitive edition of Shakespeare, I would highly recommend the The Riverside Shakespeare. It is massive (like five inches thick), but I love it.
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LibraryThing member MeditationesMartini
Well, behold the man. The Falstaff who whooped it up with Prince Hal is to the Falstaff of The Merry Wives of Windsor as one like unto an ancestor-god, even if it's the latter wearing Herne horns. From history's greates Lusty Fool, in a near-tie with Li Po, to a foolhardy lustbucket in a
And the other men are thin gruel, and the women are better, especially Mistress Quikly, but you don't want to forgive them for thinking up that amazing scene where the children dress as fairies and then not coming to life and honeytonguing the playwright into writing what would have obviously been the best scene in all of shakespeare, the one where the Elizabbethan children get ready to play Elizabethan Peter Pans.
All in all it's a confection, evidently one fit for a (Virgin) Queen, since the mythology says she commissioned it, but one that leaves a weird flat taste on the modern palate, like one of those early modern pies with cloves squab and a loaf of bread and verjuice in it. Oh, but I'd take three friends to see Sir Hugh Evans and Dr. Caius are Dead.
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buckbasket. And okay, we all diminish with time (I suddenly imagine the 15th-century Sir John as a seminal founder, a literal ancestor of his 17th-century counterpart), and it's a play where the women get the better of the men, so that makes his buffoonery appro, but it's still leavened with that little bit of tin-eared nasty where you just don't want him to tell the story about the stripper who wouldn't take her bottoms off and didn't get no tip.And the other men are thin gruel, and the women are better, especially Mistress Quikly, but you don't want to forgive them for thinking up that amazing scene where the children dress as fairies and then not coming to life and honeytonguing the playwright into writing what would have obviously been the best scene in all of shakespeare, the one where the Elizabbethan children get ready to play Elizabethan Peter Pans.
All in all it's a confection, evidently one fit for a (Virgin) Queen, since the mythology says she commissioned it, but one that leaves a weird flat taste on the modern palate, like one of those early modern pies with cloves squab and a loaf of bread and verjuice in it. Oh, but I'd take three friends to see Sir Hugh Evans and Dr. Caius are Dead.
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LibraryThing member Coach_of_Alva
This very likable play was supposedly the only time that Shakespeare wrote, not about noble heroes, but the common people of the small town milieu that he was raised in. I wish he had done it more often, for he makes Windsor as a charming a town as Mayberry.
LibraryThing member vandev11
“The Merry Wives of Windsor” centers on John Falstaff as he tries to court Mistress Page and Mistress Ford in an effort to receive compensation. Meanwhile, Mistress Page is being courted by two other men. Mistress Page and Mistress Ford team up to shame Falstaff for his deceit, which produces
“Merry Wives” is one of Shakespeare’s denser plays, yet it is unique in that it portrays middle class English folk in way that Shakespeare does not use in any of his other plays. I highly recommend pairing the reading of this play with watching a live performance of it, because it definitely helps with comprehension of the complex plot.
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comical results.“Merry Wives” is one of Shakespeare’s denser plays, yet it is unique in that it portrays middle class English folk in way that Shakespeare does not use in any of his other plays. I highly recommend pairing the reading of this play with watching a live performance of it, because it definitely helps with comprehension of the complex plot.
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LibraryThing member birdie.newborn
Falstaff remains a comic figure of large proportions even without Prince Hal as a countercharacter. He schemes as usual, only this time he's the dupe and doesn't know it.
LibraryThing member amerynth
"The Merry Wives of Windsor" is definitely not Shakespeare's strongest work. I initially found it very difficult to follow, given the multitude of characters introduced off the bat and the interesting dialects.
I found the play got better as it got moving along-- as the merry wives work hard to
This is definitely one of Shakespeare's works that would be much more amusing watched rather than read.
I found the play got better as it got moving along-- as the merry wives work hard to
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trick the lecherous Falstaff. I have not read Henry IV yet, so I have no knowledge about Falstaff other than this play-- perhaps I would have enjoyed this more if I had.This is definitely one of Shakespeare's works that would be much more amusing watched rather than read.
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LibraryThing member mstrust
When lecherous Falstaff makes plays for both Mrs Ford and Mrs Page at the same time and without realizing they are friends, the two women conspire to teach him a lesson while also punishing their husbands for thinking they would fall for the drunken old knight. And Mr and Mrs Page's pretty young
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daughter is wooed by three suitors who have all been promised success. Show Less
LibraryThing member mstrust
The merry wives are Mrs Page and Mrs Ford, two friends who find that they are both being wooed, in exactly the same letters, by Sir John Falstaff. He's a drunken deadbeat who believes his sudden interest in the long-married women will be welcomed, but they devise a plan to teach Falstaff
On paper this is a good play, but I can see how, with the right casting of Falstaff and the wives, it could be a riot. I did find that of all the Shakespearean plays I've read so far, this one had the most words and phrases that needed explanation because they didn't translate to these modern ears. 'Conceal' means 'reveal' here and 'Mockwater' means 'physician'. I'm glad I had those notes and footnotes.
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humility.On paper this is a good play, but I can see how, with the right casting of Falstaff and the wives, it could be a riot. I did find that of all the Shakespearean plays I've read so far, this one had the most words and phrases that needed explanation because they didn't translate to these modern ears. 'Conceal' means 'reveal' here and 'Mockwater' means 'physician'. I'm glad I had those notes and footnotes.
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LibraryThing member meandmybooks
Not really my sort of thing, but “Merry Wives” is so much better than some of the other comedies I've read this year (Loves Labour's Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors), that I'm giving it three stars, just in recognition of that. This is very silly, frivolous, and shallow,
”Have I liv'd to be carried in a basket like a barrow of butcher's offal? And to be thrown in the Thames? Well, and I be serv'd such another trick, I'll have my brains ta'en out and butter'd and give them to a dog for a new-year's gift.”
And later, when he's in the woods and believes he's surrounded by ferocious fairies...
”Heavens defend me from that Welsh fairy, lest he transform me to a piece of cheese!”
I guess we all have our own weird little phobias.
Finally, the excellent audio performance from Arkangel Shakespeare made this much more enjoyable than reading alone would have been. All of the actors and actresses are good, but Sylvestra le Touzel, as Mistress Ford, and Penny Downie, as Mistress Page, amused me particularly with their cheery “Wilma and Betty” tittering (from the Flintstones – is that still a recognizable reference?) .
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but Mistress Page and Mistress Ford were engaging, and it was satisfying to see this lecherous, arrogant Falstaff being thoroughly put down. Falstaff here bears only a tenuous connection with the gargantuan character in the Henry plays – he has the same name, same companions, same lusts – but he lacks the depth and ungovernable force that makes that character so memorable. Another point in the play's favor is that there are some really marvelous lines. For example, here is Falstaff, seriously rattled after being transported to a river in a basket of filthy laundry and then tossed in...”Have I liv'd to be carried in a basket like a barrow of butcher's offal? And to be thrown in the Thames? Well, and I be serv'd such another trick, I'll have my brains ta'en out and butter'd and give them to a dog for a new-year's gift.”
And later, when he's in the woods and believes he's surrounded by ferocious fairies...
”Heavens defend me from that Welsh fairy, lest he transform me to a piece of cheese!”
I guess we all have our own weird little phobias.
Finally, the excellent audio performance from Arkangel Shakespeare made this much more enjoyable than reading alone would have been. All of the actors and actresses are good, but Sylvestra le Touzel, as Mistress Ford, and Penny Downie, as Mistress Page, amused me particularly with their cheery “Wilma and Betty” tittering (from the Flintstones – is that still a recognizable reference?) .
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LibraryThing member jhudsui
I don't know it just seemed like a very by the numbers sort of affair to me. None of the characters stood out and the goofy "funny" accents aren't funny.
LibraryThing member cbl_tn
Sir John Falstaff is in Windsor with plans to seduce two married women, Mistress Page and Mistress Ford. The two women are aware of his plans and come up with a scheme of their own to make him look foolish. Meanwhile, the Page’s daughter, Ann, has three suitors competing for her favor. Which one
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will she marry? There’s just enough plot on which to hang the farce. The mispronounced English of the Welsh parson and the French doctor, as well as the malapropisms of the doctor’s servant, provide additional humor. I’ve visited Windsor enough times to be familiar with all the locations mentioned in the play, and that added to my enjoyment. I think I would enjoy watching a performance more than reading the text. Show Less
LibraryThing member seaward
The Fourth Folio in turn served as the base for the series of eighteenth-century editions of Shakespeare's plays. Nicholas Rowe used the Fourth Folio text as the foundation of his 1709 edition, and subsequent editors — Pope, Theobald, etc. — both adapted and reacted to Rowe's text in their own
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editions. (See: Shakespeare's Editors.) Show Less
LibraryThing member bell7
John Falstaff of the Henry plays is visiting Windsor and writes letters to two of the wives, attempting to seduce them for their husbands' money. The wives, Mistress Ford (of a jealous husband) and Mistress Page (of a not-so-jealous husband), decide to have some fun with him for coming up with so
This is a departure from many of Shakespeare's plays in that the majority of it is written in prose; only some is in meter. I enjoyed the wordplay and the ridiculous scenarios and ways the wives outwit Falstaff. The fat jokes may offend.
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outrageous a plot. Meanwhile, multiple suitors try to Miss Anne Page's hand.This is a departure from many of Shakespeare's plays in that the majority of it is written in prose; only some is in meter. I enjoyed the wordplay and the ridiculous scenarios and ways the wives outwit Falstaff. The fat jokes may offend.
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Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1602 (Quarto)
1619 (Quarto)
1623 (Folio)
Physical description
188 p.; 7 inches
ISBN
0451515986 / 9780451515988