The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed to have been written in or before 1597. The Windsor of the play’s title is a reference to the town of Windsor, also the location of Windsor Castle, in Berkshire, England.
Though nominally set in the reign of Henry IV or early in the reign of Henry V, the play makes no pretence to exist outside contemporary Elizabethan-era English middle-class life.
It features the character Sir John Falstaff, the fat knight who had previously been featured in
Henry IV, Part 1 and
Part 2. It has been adapted for the opera at least ten times. The play is one of Shakespeare’s lesser-regarded works among literary critics. Tradition has it that
The Merry Wives of Windsor was written at the request of Queen Elizabeth I. After watching
Henry IV Part I, she asked Shakespeare to write a play showing Falstaff in love.
The play is nominally set in the early 15th century, during the same period as the
Henry IV plays featuring Falstaff, but there is only one brief reference to this period, a line in which the character Fenton is said to have been one of Prince Hal’s rowdy friends (he ‘kept company with the wild prince and Poins’).
In all other respects, the play implies a contemporary setting of the Elizabethan era, c. 1600.
Falstaff arrives in Windsor very short on money. He decides that, to obtain financial advantage, he will court two wealthy married women, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page.
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