Understanding Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor by Robert A. Albano - HTML preview
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- Some critics also suggest that the Falstaff of Merry Wives is too “tame” and “unresourceful” compared to his counterpart in the history plays. Other critics suggest a Falstaff in a comedy necessitates changes from a Falstaff in the history plays.
- No source exists for this comedy, but it belongs in tradition of fabliaux: in some fabliaux, the wife plots against her would be suitor.
- Lyly’s Endimion from 1588 contains a scene of a nobleman who is pinched by fairies as a punishment for his lust. But they are real fairies, not children.
- Merry Wives is the lightest of Shakespeare’s comedies. There is no threat of death, nothing great at risk. Even Falstaff is invited to the wedding feast.
- Falstaff is a threat to the social order, but the knight is also passive, an unwitting victim who thinks he is initiating events.
- The comedy Falstaff has some characteristics in common with the history Falstaff:
- larger than life
- mythic
- spirit of festive inconsequence
- self-indulgent
- amoral
- anarchic
- reveler
- disruptor of social order