The Merry Wives of Windsor

"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 Verdi’s final opera, "Falstaff." Shakespeare’s 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.