Double-meanings, disguises and dirty laundry abound as Sir John Falstaff sets about improving his financial situation by wooing Mistress Page and Mistress Ford. But the ‘Merry Wives’ quickly cotton on to his tricks and decide to have a bit of fun of their own at Falstaff’s expense…
The story goes that Elizabeth I was so taken with the character of Falstaff in Henry IV that she asked Shakespeare to write a comedy about the disreputable knight falling in love. The resultant play is the only comedy that Shakespeare set in his native land, and with its dexterous mingling of verbal and physical humour, The Merry Wives of Windsor inaugurated a tradition that reaches right down to the contemporary English sitcom.
