MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, THE

comedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, produced about 160001, that centres on the comic romantic misadventures of Falstaff. The Merry Wives of Windsor was published in a quarto edition in 1602 from a reported and abbreviated text. The First Folio version is from a transcript by Ralph Crane (scrivener of the King's Men). Although it contains elements of Plautus' comedies and Italian novelle, The Merry Wives of Windsor does not have a known source. The play differs from Shakespeare's other comedies of this period in that it is set not in an imaginary country but in Windsor and the rural life of Shakespeare's own day. Shakespeare resurrected the character of Falstaff, whose death was reported in Henry V, for this play. After Falstaff meets Mistresses Page and Ford, two married women said to control their own financial affairs, he writes identical love letters to each of them, hoping to swindle some money from them. He shares his plan with his comrades Bardolph, Pistol, and Nym (characters who also appear in some of the history plays). After Falstaff discharges the services of Pistol and Nym, they go off and inform the husbands of Mistresses Page and Ford of Falstaff's plot. The wives compare their letters and resolve to trick the greasy knight. Twice the wives fool Falstaff, resulting in his being dumped in a muddy ditch and, later, disguised as a witch and beaten. The trickery of the two women also serves to frustrate the jealous behaviour of Master Ford. Mistress Ford lets her husband in on the joke in Act IV, and the two couples, Pages and Fords, happily plan one more ruse at Falstaff's expense. The play's secondary plot centres on the wooing of the Pages' charming daughter Anne. Doctor Caius, Slender, and Fenton are rivals for Anne's affection. To great comic effect, all three suitors use Caius' servant Mistress Quickly to argue their case to young Anne. Slender is favoured by Master Page, who devises a plan for Slender and Anne to elope after the play's climatic scene. Mistress Page, who favours Caius as a son-in-law, devises a similar plan. In the climatic scene, Falstaff appears in a silly costume, complete with stag's horns, expecting an assignationbut the women and their husbands have arranged for a group of friends, including Anne Page, in witch and fairy costumes, to frighten and tease him. The marriage plans conceived by Master and Mistress Page are foiled when Anne elopes with the suitor of her choice, Fenton. All identities are revealed at the end, and in an atmosphere of good humour Fenton is welcomed into the Page family and Falstaff is forgiven.