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The Merry Wives of Windsor - William Shakespeare, scene-by-scene summary
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- Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RuG)
This is a scene-by-scene summary of The Merry Wives of Windsor by Shakespeare
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The Merry Wives of WindsorLecture Notes
Shakespeare’s romantic comedies are set in Italy and France, tragedies are set in Scotland, Britain,
Denmark, Italy, Rome and Greek, the historical plays a long time ago in England but The Merry Wives
of Windsor randomly takes place a long time ago in England, even though it is a comedy.
Language
Servants speak in prose, royalty speaks in poetry. Servants will speak poetry when talking to people
of noble birth. Richard II is 100% verse, but Hamlet is roughly 70% verse and 30% prose. The Merry
Wives of Windsor is 87% prose and 13% verse. Fenton and the fairies speak verse. They don’t speak
the Shakespeare verse but rhymes nonetheless. The story is that Shakespeare wrote this play in a
fortnight because of the lack of meter.
The play contains many languages. High English (Fenton), low English, Garbled English by Mistress
Quickly. There is Welsh English by Sir Hugh (pad, pody, anypodys) and French English, as well as
French and Latin.
Shakespeare uses his own name very often in his sonnets, and now in The Merry Wives of Windsor
there is a superfluous scene with a little boy William.
Text
We do not know when the play was written, but the first time the text is mentioned is in 1601. It was
probably written after 1597, it was printed in 1603 and performed at court in 1604/5 for King James.
The Quarto version from 1602 was called A Most pleasant and excellent conceited Comedie of Sir
John Falstaff, and the Merry Wives of Windsor [and the title continues on]. It’s 1624 lines long, but
when it gets reprinted about 20 years later it is 3018 lines long. Did Shakespeare write a simple play
that was later expanded or did the first printing leave out sentences? There are other differences
between the two copies as well. Ford, in the Quatro, calls himself Brook, which is a word for a river
and Ford is a place to cross a river, but in the Folio he calls himself broom, which ruins the pun.
Spinoff
This play is Shakespeare’s spinoff! Henry IV & Henry V contains Falstaff (but he is supposedly dead)
and all the other characters. Supposedly Queen Elizabeth wanted to see the play and wanted it in a
fortnight. Sir John Falstaff is a friend and companion of Prince Hal (Henry V) who is misbehaving.
Falstaff does seem to act as a sort of father-figure, but a totally irresponsible, unreliable and drunk
one. He is a very funny joker who loves life. With his 433 lines he has the most lines in Merry Wives
of Windsor, and after that Mistress Page speaks the most with her 306 lines.
In a certain period, Shakespeare always had a tall and thin character in his plays, and people
comment on how tall and thin he is. Shakespeare probably had a tall thin character in his company.
There are a number of silly scenes in this play that are not relevant to the play at all, seemingly little
sketches.
, Summary
Act 1 Scene 1
Justice Shallow, his cousin Slender and Sir Hugh Evens enter stage. Shallow is angry at Falstaff, saying
he will bring him to court. Sir Hugh misunderstands and offers to bring Falstaff in front of the Church
Council. He suggests they try to arrange a marriage between Slender and Anne Page 1. They go to the
home of Page, where he thanks Shallow for his venison, and Shallow asks if John Falstaff is in. Page
says he is, and Shallow says that Falstaff has wronged him. Falstaff enters, and Shallow announces
his accusations: Falstaff has beaten his men, killed his deer and broken open his lodge. Falstaff
admits he did. Slender thinks he was pickpocketed by one of Falstaff’s servants, but he does not
know for sure for he was drunk. Slender says he will never be drunk again except in honest
company.
Anne Page enters, gives the group wine and exits. Mistress Ford and Mistress Page enter, greet
Falstaff and everyone except for Slander, Shallow and Sir Hugh exit to dine. Shallow asks Slender if
Slender would want to marry Anne Page, which Slender does. Even if there is no love at the
beginning, he thinks that after their marriage love will come. He says he will obey Shallow if he
orders him to marry Anne Page. Anne Page enters and invites the men to dine with her father.
Shallow and Sir Hugh agree, but Slender refuses, saying he is not hungry. He tries to strike up a
conversation with Anne Page, but Page enters saying they are waiting for him. Slender again says he
will not eat, but he enters anyway after Page again asks him to. There is some confusion about who
will enter the dining room first.
Act 1 Scene 2
Sir Hugh sends one of his servants, named Simple, to give a letter to Mistress Quickly, in order to ask
her to help convince Anne Page to marry Slender.
Act 1 Scene 3
Falstaff will stay at The Garter Inn for ten pounds a week, and in exchange, his servant Bardolph will
help the host with his job. He announces he intends to woo Ford’s wife. He shows a letter he wrote
to Mistress Ford and one to Mistress Page. Both wives are responsible for their husbands’ finances.
He asks his servants Pistol and Nym to hand the letters to Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, but they
refuse to. They prefer Falstaff to have a good reputation. Pistol and Nym plan together to tell Ford
and Page what Falstaff’s plan is.
Act 1 Scene 4
Simple arrives at Mistress Quickly’s house, and she agrees to help convince Anne Page to marry
Slender. Suddenly, doctor Caius arrives, and Simple hides in a closet. Doctor Caius is French, and he
is looking for his equipment. He finds Simple in the closet and threatens to kill him, but Mistress
Quickly says that Simple is there on her orders. She explains the situation and Doctor Caius goes to
write a letter. Mistress Quickly explains to Simple that Doctor Caius is in love with Anne Page, and
Doctor Caius gives Simple a letter for Sir Hugh. Simple leaves and Doctor Caius is angry, threatening
to kill Sir Hugh. Mistress Quickly tries to calm him down and says that Anne loves him, but once
Doctor Caius leaves for court she remarks that Anne loves neither Caius not Slender.
Fenton enters and asks how Anne is doing. Mistress Quickly replies that she is pretty and honest and
that she loves Fenton. Fenton says he will visit Anne today, and gives Mistress Quickly money and
asks her to recommend him to Anne. When Fenton leaves Mistress Quickly says she knows Anne
doesn’t love Fenton either.
1
Played by a Page (young boy actor, pun!)
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