The Merry Wives of Windsor
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is the world's greatest ever playwright. Born in 1564, he split his time between Stratford-upon-Avon and London, where he worked as a playwright, poet and actor. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway. Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two, leaving three children—Susanna, Hamnet and Judith. The rest is silence.
Read more from William Shakespeare
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: All 214 Plays, Sonnets, Poems & Apocryphal Plays (Including the Biography of the Author): Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Othello, The Tempest, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard III, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, The Comedy of Errors… Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Christmas Library: 250+ Essential Christmas Novels, Poems, Carols, Short Stories...by 100+ Authors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Romeo & Juliet & Vampires Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Shakespeare's First Folio Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shakespeare's Love Sonnets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShakespeare in Autumn (Seasons Edition -- Fall): Select Plays and the Complete Sonnets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsComplete Works of Shakespeare (Annotated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Merry Wives of Windsor
Related ebooks
The Merry Wives of Windsor Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Merry Wives of Windsor or Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Merry Wives of Windsor, with line numbers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Merry Wives Of Windsor: A Comedy Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Merry Wives of Windsor In Plain and Simple English (A Modern Translation and the Original Version) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWilliam Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor - Unabridged Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Merry Wives of Windsor: "This is the short and the long of it" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Merry Wives of Windsor (new classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Taming of the Shrew Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAs You Like It Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Taming of The Shrew Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Love-chase Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAs You Like It: “All the world's a stage.” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Taming of the Shrew: Including "The Life of William Shakespeare" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Old Debauchees Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAs You Like It: Including "The Life of William Shakespeare" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll's Well That End's Well Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Taming of the Shrew: A Comedy Play Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEvery Man In His Humour Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Taming of the Shrew (The Unabridged Play) + The Classic Biography: The Life of William Shakespeare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAs You Like It: The book that subverted the traditional rules of romance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Alchemist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEastward Hoe: "Good men are the stars, the planets of the ages wherein they live, and illustrate the times." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAs You Like It (The Unabridged Play) + The Classic Biography: The Life of William Shakespeare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwelfth Night or, What You Will Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Debauchee: or, The Credulous Cuckold Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Basset-Table Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Revenge: or, A Match in Newgate Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWilliam Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew - Unabridged Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Architecture For You
Building Natural Ponds: Create a Clean, Algae-free Pond without Pumps, Filters, or Chemicals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Become An Exceptional Designer: Effective Colour Selection For You And Your Client Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Architecture 101: From Frank Gehry to Ziggurats, an Essential Guide to Building Styles and Materials Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Create Your Dream Home on a Budget: Practical Advice, Inspiration, and Projects Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Little Book of Living Small Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Martha Stewart's Organizing: The Manual for Bringing Order to Your Life, Home & Routines Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Architectural Digest at 100: A Century of Style Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Feng Shui Modern Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Live Beautiful Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Down to Earth: Laid-back Interiors for Modern Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Giza Power Plant: Technologies of Ancient Egypt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5House Beautiful: Colors for Your Home: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Paint Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nesting Place: It Doesn't Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year-Round Solar Greenhouse: How to Design and Build a Net-Zero Energy Greenhouse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Chicago World's Fair of 1893: A Photographic Record Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Fix Absolutely Anything: A Homeowner's Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Bohemians Handbook: Come Home to Good Vibes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cozy White Cottage: 100 Ways to Love the Feeling of Being Home Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shinto the Kami Way Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Home Sweet Maison: The French Art of Making a Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flatland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life: How to Use Feng Shui to Get Love, Money, Respect and Happiness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frommer's Athens and the Greek Islands Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Creative Space: How to Design Your Home to Stimulate Ideas and Spark Innovation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Welcome Home: A Cozy Minimalist Guide to Decorating and Hosting All Year Round Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Merry Wives of Windsor
293 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I found this the most difficult of the comedies to read (lots of vernacular). Get a good edition with proper footnotes (endnotes would be cumbersome for this one).
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Falstaff remains a comic figure of large proportions even without Prince Hal as a countercharacter. He schemes as usual, only this time he's the dupe and doesn't know it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fourth Folio in turn served as the base for the series of eighteenth-century editions of Shakespeare's plays. Nicholas Rowe used the Fourth Folio text as the foundation of his 1709 edition, and subsequent editors — Pope, Theobald, etc. — both adapted and reacted to Rowe's text in their own editions. (See: Shakespeare's Editors.)
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This very likable play was supposedly the only time that Shakespeare wrote, not about noble heroes, but the common people of the small town milieu that he was raised in. I wish he had done it more often, for he makes Windsor as a charming a town as Mayberry.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I don't know it just seemed like a very by the numbers sort of affair to me. None of the characters stood out and the goofy "funny" accents aren't funny.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I really enjoyed this tale. The wives are my heroes and I thought the interplay between them and their husbands was honest and hilarious. I loved that they were not taken in for a minute by Falstaff's flattery. It truly is a very respectful view of women and their intelligence, I wish more modern authors had that respect.
Book preview
The Merry Wives of Windsor - William Shakespeare
The Merry Wives of Windsor
William Shakespeare
Copyright © 2018 by OPU
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Act I
SCENE I. Windsor. Before PAGE's house.
Enter SHALLOW, SLENDER, and SIR HUGH EVANS
SHALLOW
Sir Hugh, persuade me not; I will make a Star-
chamber matter of it: if he were twenty Sir John
Falstaffs, he shall not abuse Robert Shallow, esquire.
SLENDER
In the county of Gloucester, justice of peace and
'Coram.'
SHALLOW
Ay, cousin Slender, and 'Custalourum.
SLENDER
Ay, and 'Rato-lorum' too; and a gentleman born,
master parson; who writes himself 'Armigero,' in any
bill, warrant, quittance, or obligation, 'Armigero.'
SHALLOW
Ay, that I do; and have done any time these three
hundred years.
SLENDER
All his successors gone before him hath done't; and
all his ancestors that come after him may: they may
give the dozen white luces in their coat.
SHALLOW
It is an old coat.
SIR HUGH EVANS
The dozen white louses do become an old coat well;
it agrees well, passant; it is a familiar beast to
man, and signifies love.
SHALLOW
The luce is the fresh fish; the salt fish is an old coat.
SLENDER
I may quarter, coz.
SHALLOW
You may, by marrying.
SIR HUGH EVANS
It is marring indeed, if he quarter it.
SHALLOW
Not a whit.
SIR HUGH EVANS
Yes, py'r lady; if he has a quarter of your coat,
there is but three skirts for yourself, in my
simple conjectures: but that is all one. If Sir
John Falstaff have committed disparagements unto
you, I am of the church, and will be glad to do my
benevolence to make atonements and compremises
between you.
SHALLOW
The council shall bear it; it is a riot.
SIR HUGH EVANS
It is not meet the council hear a riot; there is no
fear of Got in a riot: the council, look you, shall
desire to hear the fear of Got, and not to hear a
riot; take your vizaments in that.
SHALLOW
Ha! o' my life, if I were young again, the sword
should end it.
SIR HUGH EVANS
It is petter that friends is the sword, and end it:
and there is also another device in my prain, which
peradventure prings goot discretions with it: there
is Anne Page, which is daughter to Master Thomas
Page, which is pretty virginity.
SLENDER
Mistress Anne Page? She has brown hair, and speaks
small like a woman.
SIR HUGH EVANS
It is that fery person for all the orld, as just as
you will desire; and seven hundred pounds of moneys,
and gold and silver, is her grandsire upon his
death's-bed—Got deliver to a joyful resurrections!
—give, when she is able to overtake seventeen years
old: it were a goot motion if we leave our pribbles
and prabbles, and desire a marriage between Master
Abraham and Mistress Anne Page.
SLENDER
Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pound?
SIR HUGH EVANS
Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny.
SLENDER
I know the young gentlewoman; she has good gifts.
SIR HUGH EVANS
Seven hundred pounds and possibilities is goot gifts.
SHALLOW
Well, let us see honest Master Page. Is Falstaff there?
SIR HUGH EVANS
Shall I tell you a lie? I do despise a liar as I do
despise one that is false, or as I despise one that
is not true. The knight, Sir John, is there; and, I
beseech you, be ruled by your well-willers. I will
peat the door for Master Page.
Knocks
What, hoa! Got pless your house here!
PAGE
[Within] Who's there?
Enter PAGE
SIR HUGH EVANS
Here is Got's plessing, and your friend, and Justice
Shallow; and here young Master Slender, that
peradventures shall tell you another tale, if
matters grow to your likings.
PAGE
I am glad to see your worships well.
I thank you for my venison, Master Shallow.
SHALLOW
Master Page, I am glad to see you: much good do it
your good heart! I wished your venison better; it
was ill killed. How doth good Mistress Page?—and I
thank you always with my heart, la! with my heart.
PAGE
Sir, I thank you.
SHALLOW
Sir, I thank you; by yea and no, I do.
PAGE
I am glad to see you, good Master Slender.
SLENDER
How does your fallow greyhound, sir? I heard say he
was outrun on Cotsall.
PAGE
It could not be judged, sir.
SLENDER
You'll not confess, you'll not confess.
SHALLOW
That he will not. 'Tis your fault, 'tis your fault;
'tis a good dog.
PAGE
A cur, sir.
SHALLOW
Sir, he's a good dog, and a fair dog: can there be
more said? he is good and fair. Is Sir John
Falstaff here?
PAGE
Sir, he is within; and I would I could do a good
office between you.
SIR HUGH EVANS
It is spoke as a Christians ought to speak.
SHALLOW
He hath wronged me, Master Page.
PAGE
Sir, he doth in some sort confess it.
SHALLOW
If it be confessed, it is not redress'd: is not that
so, Master Page? He hath wronged me; indeed he
hath, at a word, he hath, believe me: Robert
Shallow, esquire, saith, he is wronged.
PAGE
Here comes Sir John.
Enter FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH, NYM, and PISTOL
FALSTAFF
Now, Master Shallow, you'll complain of me to the king?
SHALLOW
Knight, you have beaten my men, killed my deer, and
broke open my lodge.
FALSTAFF
But not kissed your keeper's daughter?
SHALLOW
Tut, a pin! this shall be answered.
FALSTAFF
I will answer it straight; I have done all this.
That is now answered.
SHALLOW
The council shall know this.
FALSTAFF
'Twere better for you if it were known in counsel:
you'll be laughed at.
SIR HUGH EVANS
Pauca verba, Sir John; goot worts.
FALSTAFF
Good worts! good cabbage. Slender, I broke your
head: what matter have you against me?
SLENDER
Marry, sir, I have matter in my head against you;
and against your cony-catching rascals, Bardolph,
Nym, and Pistol.
BARDOLPH
You Banbury cheese!
SLENDER
Ay, it is no matter.
PISTOL
How now, Mephostophilus!
SLENDER
Ay, it is no matter.
NYM
Slice, I say! pauca, pauca: slice! that's my humour.
SLENDER
Where's Simple, my man? Can you tell, cousin?
SIR HUGH EVANS
Peace, I pray you. Now let us understand. There is
three umpires in this matter, as I understand; that
is, Master Page, fidelicet Master Page; and there is
myself, fidelicet myself; and the three party is,
lastly and finally, mine host of the Garter.
PAGE
We three, to hear it and end it between them.
SIR HUGH EVANS
Fery goot: I will make a prief of it in my note-
book; and we will afterwards ork upon the cause with
as great discreetly as we