Program Essay for "The Merry Wives of Windsor"
Romance, Interrupted: Wooing the Witty Wives of Windsor
by Thomas Canfield
The Merry Wives of Windsor is a remarkable curiosity in the context of Shakespeare’s dramatic works. A fast-paced, hilarious romp set against the backdrop of small town life, it is the only Shakespearean comedy with an entirely English setting. It is also the closest that Shakespeare comes, in all of his plays, to writing in the farce tradition.
Audience members will recognize several characters in The Merry Wives of Windsor from Shakespeare’s cycle of history plays commonly known as the “Henriad.” In particular, characters from The Merry Wives of Windsor appear in both parts of Henry IV and in Henry V, albeit in vastly different circumstances. Exactly when the action of this comedy takes place in relation to the events dramatized in the histories has long been a matter of debate. Although these plays contain several overlapping characters, the action recounted in the Henry plays occurs during the early fifteenth century, in a distinctly medieval framework. In contrast, The Merry Wives of Windsor features an anachronistic setting that more closely resembles the Elizabethan age, Shakespeare’s contemporary time, nearly two centuries later.
In a play that celebrates the manners and morals of the rising middle class, Sir John Falstaff takes center stage in The Merry Wives of Windsor as the comic, larger-than-life representative of an increasingly obsolete, lesser nobility. Both morally and economically bankrupt, Falstaff is more knave than knight in this play, and is a sore source of aggravation to the Windsor community at large. Having fallen on hard times and describing himself as “almost out at heels,” Falstaff hatches a plot to fill his purse by wooing Mistress Page and Mistress Ford, two respectable, married women with prosperous, middle-class husbands. To set his plan in motion, he sends identical, badly-written love letters to both wives. However, as might be expected in any provincial community, the wives eagerly share the letters with each other, causing Falstaff’s brazen plan to backfire with uproarious results.
In the world of this domestic comedy, women rule the day, and Mistress Quickly, yet another character transplanted from the history plays to the environs of Windsor, is the major figure connecting the primary and secondary plotlines. As the town’s unofficial matchmaker, Mistress Quickly acts not only as an intermediary between the wives and Falstaff. She also takes full advantage of her knowledge that Anne, the teenage daughter of Mistress Page, is being pursued by three suitors: the dim-witted, obtuse Master Slender, the hot-tempered French physician Dr. Caius, and Master Fenton, a young gentleman. Mistress Quickly plays her role to the hilt, making the most of her opportune position as go-between.
Much of the play’s humor stems from the idiosyncratic language of the characters and the local color that it portrays. Sir Hugh Evans, a Welsh parson, “makes fritters of English” when he speaks in a fractured stage dialect. The woeful diction and thick accent of Dr. Caius reveals an imperfect comprehension of the English language typical of a non-native speaker. Slender’s most remarkable linguistic feature is his use of malapropisms; for example, he states, “I am freely dissolv’d, and dissolutely” when referring to his resolute resolve to pursue Anne’s hand in marriage. In the mouth of Mistress Quickly, the word “virtuous” becomes “fartuous,” and so on. The distinctive dialogue adds tremendously to the situational comedy in the play, and Shakespeare must have had great linguistic sport when writing it. In keeping with the middle-class milieu of The Merry Wives of Windsor, the play contains a much higher percentage of prose, as opposed to verse, than any other dramatic work by Shakespeare.
Before the play’s final scene, Falstaff is treated to the ignominious horrors of washing day and gets a taste, first-hand, of the terrors of the witch-hunt. His third and final humiliation takes place in Windsor forest at midnight, where the audience is introduced to several characters from popular English folklore. This scene features not only the Fairy Queen and her attendants, including elves and hobgoblins, but also a rather portly version of Herne the Hunter, the antlered spirit associated with the great oak in Windsor forest.
According to popular theatrical legend, Queen Elizabeth commissioned this play in 1597 for a ceremonial occasion, namely a state celebration for the Order of the Garter, held prior to the installation of the newly-elected knights at Windsor. Purportedly captivated by Falstaff in the Henry plays, the Queen requested that Shakespeare write a play about Falstaff in love. Yet, even if The Merry Wives of Windsor were written at royal command, any real romance or genuine passion on Falstaff’s part is conspicuously absent. Although all transgressions are forgiven in the end, it is clear that Falstaff’s abortive amours will remain a perennial target for jesting in the town of Windsor.
