The Merry Wives of Windsor

by William Shakespeare

Overview

Merry Mischief-- Arriving in Windsor with very little money, John Falstaff decides to raise funds by wooing two wealthy, married women. His servants refuse to help him, and after being sacked they go to the husbands of Falstaff's intended targets. Falstaff send both women, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, almost identical letters. The two discover Falstaff's intentions and together decide to make sport of him and pretend to be amenable to his advances. Thine own true knight, By day or night, Or any kind of light, With all his might, For thee to fight

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781627555296
Publisher:	Wilder Publications
Publication date:	11/10/2013
Pages:	100
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.24(d)

About the Author

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English poet, playwright, and actor. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, he was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and glove-maker, and Mary Arden, a woman from a wealthy family. Likely educated at the King’s New School, he would have studied Latin in his youth. At eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, then twenty-six. Together, they raised three children—Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith. By 1892, several of his early plays had appeared on stage in London. These works, including Richard III and Henry VI, show the influence of Elizabethan dramatists Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe. He then found success with a series of comedies, such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night. By the late 1590s, Shakespeare wrote two of his finest tragedies, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar, proving his talent and thematic versatility. The beginning of the 17th century marked a turn in his work, ushering in an era often considered his darkest and most productive. Between 1600 and 1606, he produced such masterpieces as Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear, all of which are undoubtedly some of the finest works ever written in the English language. In addition to his 39 plays, many of which were performed by his own company at the legendary Globe Theatre, Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets and three long poems, many of which continue to be read around the world.

Date of Death:

2018

Place of Birth:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Place of Death:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Read an Excerpt

Act 1 Scene 1 running scene 1
(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "The Merry Wives of Windsor"
by .
Copyright © 2006 William Shakespeare.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Table of Contents

Introduction: the date and first occasion of the play; The world of the play; Some moments in the play; The play on the stage; Recent critical and stage interpretations; Note on the text; List of characters; THE PLAY; Textual analysis; Reading list.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for William Shakespeare: Complete Works

“Remarkable . . . makes Shakespeare’s extraordinary accomplishment more vivid than ever.”—James Shapiro, professor, Columbia University, bestselling author of A Year in the Life of Shakespeare: 1599
 
“A feast of literary and historical information.”—The Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher