What is The Merry Wives of Windsor?

The Merry Wives of Windsor is one of Shakespeare's middle era comedies which I am going to say was written in 1600.  A far more detailed explanation for my choosing of that date will come in the immediate future.  There is much debate about the actual year of authorship, as there is with most dates for anything Shakespeare related.

I am quite in love the idea that this play was written at the request of Elizabeth I because she enjoyed the character of Falstaff so much and wanted to see a play with him in love. 

The play focuses on the oafish knight Sir John Falstaff and his attempts to woo two married women so that he may be a "kept" man.  A secondary plot revolves around Anne Page, the eldest daughter of one of the women Falstaff is wooing, and the three men that are vying for her affection. 

The comedy is broad, perhaps the broadest of any of the Shakespeare plays, and oftentimes borders on farcical slapstick.  Many contemporary scholars/directors liken it to a sitcom; one of the popular "adapted settings" is that of a 1950's/early 60's sitcom setting. 

Dinner at the Pages

The scene is Windsor, England--an outlying area of London--where two families, the Pages and the Fords, are good friends.  Most of the play takes place in the homes of these two close families.  As the play opens the Pages, George and Meg and their named children Anne and William, are hosting the Fords, Frank and Alice, and a collection of Windsor notables to dinner in honor of traveling guest and knight, John Falstaff.

Falstaff at the
Berkshires

Falstaff is a charmingly disgusting, fat knight who made a name for himself by serving with/advising young prince Hal, before he became King Henry V.  Falstaff comes with his own entourage, including Bardolph, a drunkard, Pistol, a smart ass, and Nym, an ancient sourpuss.  He also travels with his trusty page, Robin, who is quite adept at his job--which is mainly keeping the older men in line. 



Justice Shallow, Sir Hugh
Evans and Slender

Falstaff and his men have pissed off local justice of the peace, Robert Shallow.  Justice Shallow is so infuriated that he is threatening to sue Falstaff to the fullest extent of the law, but Sir Hugh Evans, a Welsh parson, agrees to be intermediary.  Falstaff will later admit to killing Shallow's deer, but refuses to do anything about it.

The Pages' eldest daughter, Anne, is quite the fickle beauty.  She is wanted by any number of men, including Dr. Caius, a local French doctor, and young Lord Fenton, a lovestruck and lovelorn gentleman of Windsor.  Justice Shallow and Sir Evans, convince Shallow's nephew, Slender, that he should try to woo the maiden Anne.  He agrees, but is woefully inept at doing so.



Falstaff, Pistol and Nym

We soon learn that Falstaff is out of money, and his plan to keep himself well fed, well drunk and well bedded, is to woo both Mistress Page and Mistress Ford.  He sends both women the exact same letter full of "romantic" overtures.  Meg and Alice are at first angry, but then bemused at the delusional knight.  They decide to out him to their husbands, by first playing along with his seductions, and then exposing him as the fool he obviously is.  Alice is also hoping to get some sort of emotional rise out of her distant husband, Frank Ford; she feels she is being taken for granted.

The action shifts to the Garter Inn, a public house where Falstaff and his entourage are staying.  When he tries to enlist Pistol and Nym to help with his seduction game, they refuse.  He essentially fires them, and Pistol cries revenge.



Mistress Quickly and Dr. Caius

We are next introduced to Mistress Quickly, who is a servant to the French Doctor Caius.  She also happens to be a close confidant to the young Anne Page.  She quickly agrees to aid Justice Shallow and Pastor Evans in their plan to get Anne to fall for Shallow's nephew, Slender.  She also has told Dr. Caius she will help him win Ann's favor.  When he comes home and spies a letter from Evans asking for Mistress Quickly's help getting Slender to be with Ann, he mistakes the letter to show for Evans' own feelings for the young hottie and challenges him to a duel.  As Caius prepares for the duel, young Lord Fenton comes in and reminds Mistress Quickly that she agreed to help him win Ann's hand.  Now the B-plot of the show is firmly in place.

When the fired Pistol and Nym warn George Page and Frank Ford of Falstaff's plan to seduce their wives, the husbands react quite a bit differently from each other.  Page thinks his wife will rebuff the fat knight, while Ford is almost consumed with jealousy.  Ford decides he will disguise himself as a man called Brook so that he can talk to Falstaff without him knowing that he is in fact Ford.



Falstaff and
Mistress Quickly

 Mistress Quickly has conspired with the merry wives to aid them in their plan to dupe Falstaff, and she goes to him to tell him  (1) that he can meet Alice Ford in the morning, but (2) Meg Page isn't as trusting and asks that Falstaff give her his page, Robin.  Falstaff agrees and then meets with Brook (Ford), who offers him money if Falstaff will agree to help Brook (Ford) seduce Mrs. Ford.  Falstaff agrees and then begins insulting and degrading Mr. Ford unwittingly to his own face.



Sir Hugh waiting for Dr. Caius

The time for the duel between the battling accents is nigh, but the Welsh Pastor Evans and the French Dr. Caius are physically in two different fields.  The Host of the Garter Inn, a fun and sunny chap, has sent them in two different directions so that they will not hurt each other.  Once the two men meet, they do not fight, but promise to exact their "revenge" on the Host.



Falstaff hides in the
busk-basket.

Falstaff goes to the Ford home to seduce Alice Ford.  Meg comes in and is "shocked" to find Falstaff there.  She tells the duo that Frank is right outside, and that Falstaff must hide.  He throws his enormous body into an equally giant clothing basket, which Mrs. Ford tells the servants to dump in the river.  As they exit, Ford actually does come in surprising both women, and goes on a jealous rampage to find Alice's errant lover, which he can't because he's in a basket down by the river.

At the Page house we learn that George Page want his daughter Anne to marry the trifle Slender and not Fenton, while Meg Page wants Anne to marry the rich Dr. Caius.  Mistress Quickly of course has promised to help all three, but seems to favor Fenton more.  Quickly then tells Falstaff that Mrs. Ford will meet him in the morning so they can finally consummate their assignation.  When Brook (Ford) shows, up Falstaff tells him how he escaped Ford's detection by hiding in a clothing basket and of the plan to meet with Mrs. Ford in the morning.

Ford beats the cross-dressed Falstaff.

The next morning Alice Ford and Meg Page again start playing tricks on Falstaff.  When Ford shows up, they tell Falstaff he needs to dress as Alice's hated aunt.  As he goes to change, Ford enters and attacks the empty laundry basket.  When Falstaff comes down disguised as a woman, Ford quickly sees through the ruse and chases Falstaff out into the street physically attacking him/her.

Fairies Attack!!

Having seen her husband's jealousy, Alice agrees with Meg to tell their husbands the truth of the whole affair.  Together the foursome decide to set up one more meeting, this time in the woods at midnight.  They will get all of the children of Windsor to dress as fairies to scare Falstaff.  The Pages also secretly plan to each get their intended spouse for Anne to take her away and marry her in all of the commotion.  George Page tells Slender that Anne will be dressed in white; Meg tells Dr. Caius that Anne will be dressed in green, but in actuality she will be dressed in blue and will go off and marry Fenton.

Dr. Caius and Pastor Evans exact their revenge on the Host, by tricking him into thinking that horses that he has rented to three German lords (which we nerve see) have been stolen.  A laugh riot, I know.  In fact it is followed up with a "rib tickling" scene where Pastor Hugh instructs young William Page in the proper definitions of a bunch of words which Mistress Quickly then quickly discounts.

Falstaff, Alice and Meg
at The Old Globe, London

At midnight, Pastor Evans has the kids, Mistress Quickly, Pistol and Nym all dressed as fairies and ready to go.  Both Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page seduce the large Falstaff, who is wearing the antlers of a buck (don't ask) and claims to be more than enough man for the two of them.  Then the fairies attack, and each of Anne's suitors take someone dressed in the color they were told.  When all is undone, the spouses tell Falstaff of their plans to make a fool of him, and forgive him.  The Pages also learn of Anne's elopement with Fenton, and Dr. Caius and Slender's mistaken "brides".  All decide to go and laugh it off.

Many scholars think that Merry Wives is one of Shakespeare's weakest comedies, but they approach it from a purely academic sense.  Yes, Falstaff isn't as rich a character as he is in the two Henry IVs.  And yes, there is a lot of slapstick comedy based on mistaken identities and disguises.  Yes, there are jokes based on the accents of foreigners (including the title of this journal/blog), and there are jokes centered on erections and urine.  Yes, it all seems so "low", but you know what?  It plays really well.



Alice Ford and Meg Page
at Great Lakes Theatre

Audiences consistently cite Merry Wives as one of their favorite comedies to attend.  Why?  Because the story is so visual, making it easy to understand.  It's also pretty dirty, and that doesn't hurt.  It's Farce 101 done by a master, and that makes it so attractive to directors and producers.  It has had any number of adaptations, including nine different musical ones from Verdi's Falstaff opera to the recent Broadway musical comedy, Lone Star Love (once known as The Merry Wives of Windsor, Texas) and was a key influence on the British sitcom Fawlty Towers.

And while, being an academic at heart, I won't ignore the intellectual insights or any inferiorities of the material, I just cannot allow them to control the production; they must merely inform my direction.  That is what this blog is all about.

Shakespeare is not meant to be read.  Shakespeare is meant to be seen and heard.  And that is what this production will be all about.