New Folger Library Shakespeare

At head of title: Folger Shakespeare Library

Editors' preface -- Shakespeare's The merry wives of Windsor -- Reading Shakespeare's language: The merry wives of Windsor -- Shakespeare's life -- Shakespeare's theater -- The pbulication of Shkespeare's plays -- An introduction to thie text -- The merry wives of Windsor : text of the play with commentary -- Longer notes -- Textual notes -- The merry wives of Wondsor : a modern perspetive / by Natasha Korda -- Further reading -- Key to famous lines and phrases

"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 pattern. 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."--Provided by pbulisher