‘It never yet had reader or spectator, who did not think it too soon at end’ — Samuel Johnson. The rascally Falstaff — beloved rogue of Henry IV and Henry V — returns in William Shakespeare’s delightful comic encore, The Merry Wives of Windsor, edited by G.R. Hibbard with an introduction by Catherine Richardson in Penguin Shakespeare. Short of money and long on scheming, the fat and foolish Falstaff sets his sights on two married women, plotting to seduce them both and plunder their husbands’ fortunes. What he fails to anticipate is that the wives will compare notes — and that their appetite for revenge will prove far more inventive than his appetite for gain. The result is a relentlessly inventive comic humiliation, lively and compelling, and ultimately a joyous celebration of the all-conquering power of laughter. ‘We’ll leave a proof, by that which we will do, Wives may be merry, and yet honest too.’ This edition includes a general introduction to Shakespeare’s life and Elizabethan theatre, a separate introduction to The Merry Wives of Windsor, a chronology, suggestions for further reading, an essay on performance options for both stage and screen, and a full commentary.
ISBN 13: 9780141396576
Author: William Shakespeare
