The Merry Wives of Windsor: Difference between revisions
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Shakespeare's "merry wives" are Mistress Ford and Mistress Page of the town of Windsor. The two play practical jokes on Mistress Ford's jealous husband and a visiting knight, Sir John Falstaff. | |||
Merry wives, jealous husbands, and predatory knights were common in a kind of play called "citizen comedy" or "city comedy." In such plays, courtiers, gentlemen, or knights use social superiority to seduce citizens' wives. | |||
The Windsor wives, though, do not follow that patter. Instead, Falstaff's offer of himself as lover inspires their torment of him. Falstaff responds with the same linguistic facility that Shakespeare gives him in the history plays in which he appears, making him the "hero" of the play for many audiences. | |||
Scholars think Shakespeare wrote this play between 1597 and 1601. It was published as a quarto in 1602. A fuller, more readable text appeared in the 1623 First Folio in 1623. Sources likely included a story for Ser Giovanni Fiorentino's ''Il Pecorone (The Dunce)'' and ''Tarltons Newes out of Purgatorie''.<ref>Adapted from the Folger Library Shakespeare edition, edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. © 2004 Folger Shakespeare Library.</ref> | |||
== Productions at the Folger == | == Productions at the Folger == | ||
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== Other media == | == Other media == | ||
== Notes == | |||
<references> | |||
Revision as of 15:09, 16 June 2014
Shakespeare's "merry wives" are Mistress Ford and Mistress Page of the town of Windsor. The two play practical jokes on Mistress Ford's jealous husband and a visiting knight, Sir John Falstaff.
Merry wives, jealous husbands, and predatory knights were common in a kind of play called "citizen comedy" or "city comedy." In such plays, courtiers, gentlemen, or knights use social superiority to seduce citizens' wives.
The Windsor wives, though, do not follow that patter. Instead, Falstaff's offer of himself as lover inspires their torment of him. Falstaff responds with the same linguistic facility that Shakespeare gives him in the history plays in which he appears, making him the "hero" of the play for many audiences.
Scholars think Shakespeare wrote this play between 1597 and 1601. It was published as a quarto in 1602. A fuller, more readable text appeared in the 1623 First Folio in 1623. Sources likely included a story for Ser Giovanni Fiorentino's Il Pecorone (The Dunce) and Tarltons Newes out of Purgatorie.[1]
Productions at the Folger
Early editions
First Folio
- LUNA: First Folio: D2r - E6v
- Hamnet: STC 22273 Fo.1 no. 68
Second Folio
- LUNA: Second Folio: D2r - E6v
- Hamnet: STC 22274 Fo. 2 no. 07
First Quarto
- LUNA: First Quarto
- Hamnet: STC 22299
Second Quarto
- LUNA: Second Quarto
- Hamnet: STC 22300 Copy 1
Third Quarto
- LUNA: Third Quarto
- Hamnet: STC 22301
Modern editions
The Merry Wives of Windsor can be read online with Folger Digital Texts and purchased from Simon and Schuster.
- Hamnet link to Folger Edition: PR2753 .M6 2003 copy 2 v.24
Translations
Performance materials
Other media
Notes
<references>
- ↑ Adapted from the Folger Library Shakespeare edition, edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. © 2004 Folger Shakespeare Library.