The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare. Its date of composition is unknown: it registered for publication in 1602, but was probably several years old by that date. According to legend, the play was the written in response to Elizabeth I's request to have a play about "Jack Falstaff in love". It is Shakespeare's only play that deals exclusively with contemporary English life. The play has no known sources.

The central character, Falstaff, originally appeared in one of Shakespeare's earlier plays, Henry IV, part 1, and it is often claimed that he was persuaded to revive the character by the Queen herself, who had so much enjoyed the comedic episodes in the earlier work. Textual allusions to the Order of the Garter suggest that the play was written to be performed in April 1597 prior to the installation of May 1597 of Knights-Elect of that order at Windsor; Elizabeth I attended the April 23rd performance.

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. One suggestion is that this play is, in fact, nothing more than a revision of an older play by another hand, and that Shakespeare left many of the older mediocre lines in the revised play. It has also been postulated that the play was written hastily, to order for a special occasion, within severe time restraints.

The play concerns the efforts of Sir John Falstaff to obtain financial advantage by courting two wealthy married women, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. The "merry wives" are not interested in the ageing, overweight Falstaff as a suitor, but for the sake of their own amusement pretend to respond to his proposals. At one point Falstaff is forced by a jealous husband to hide in a laundry basket and is thrown into the river. Eventually his scheme is revealed and he is held up to ridicule, but the play does end happily, with the marriage of Mistress Page's daughter.

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).

The play was revised and adapted by John Dennis in 1702 as The Comical Gallant .

Giuseppe Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, with libretto by Arrigo Boito, is based on the play, although, as with most operas adapted from the theater, there are significant differences as to characters and plot.

External link

• The Merry Wiues of Windsor - HTML version of this title.
• The Merry Wives of Windsor - plain vanilla text from Project Gutenberg