The Merry Wives of Windsor

About this book

"The Merry Wives of Windsor" is a delightful and lively comedy which when taken on its own merits is extremely entertaining. As critic William Hazlitt says "The Merry Wives of Windsor is a very amusing play with a great deal of humor character and nature in it." A perennial favorite among audiences the play even became the basis for Giuseppe Verdis final opera "Falstaff." Shakespeares plays were first published individually in Quarto editions. Later they were collected and published in Folio editions. There are often variations in the text from edition to edition. The text of this edition of "The Merry Wives of Windsor" is the nearest possible approximation to what Shakespeare actually wrote and is based on the earliest reliable printed texts. This beautiful edition of "The Merry Wives of Windsor" is illustrated by Hugh Thomson who imaginatively captures its comic qualities as well as the ambience of Elizabethan England.