Sat, Apr 11 · 4:00 PM CEST
Dear members,
Indeed, idealized love and the practicalities of romance are heavily contrasted in Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor (April) and The Two Gentlemen of Verona (May). In very different ways, both plays challenge romantic posturing and expose the distance between lofty declarations of love and the actual conduct of men. The Merry Wives of Windsor , Shakespeare forces romance into the comedic rooms of everyday life, where the intelligence, wit, and the common sense of women cut through male fantasy and self-importance .
About the Play: The Merry Wives of Windsor or Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor i s 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, who watching Henry IV, Part 1, is said to have asked Shakespeare to write a play depicting Falstaff in love.
The Plot:
Page is not concerned, but the jealous Ford persuades the Host of the Garter Inn to introduce him to Falstaff as a 'Master Brook' so that he can find out Falstaff's plans. Meanwhile, three different men are trying to win the hand of Page's daughter, Anne Page. Mistress Page would like her daughter to marry Doctor Caius, a French physician, whereas the girl's father would like her to marry Master Slender. Anne herself is in love with Master Fenton, but Page had previously rejected Fenton as a suitor due to his having squandered his considerable fortune on high-class living. Hugh Evans, a Welsh parson, tries to enlist the help of Mistress Quickly (servant to Doctor Caius) in wooing Anne for Slender, but the doctor discovers this and challenges Evans to a duel.
The Host of the Garter Inn prevents this duel by telling each man a different meeting place, causing much amusement for himself, Justice Shallow, Page and others. Evans and Caius decide to work together to be revenged on the Host...
Sources: The Merry Wives of Windsor may have been adapted from Il Pecorone, a collection of stories by Ser Giovanni Fiorentino ; one of these stories was included in William Painter's The Palace of Pleasure.
