historical setting to the domesticity of a comedic environment. But is it is possible that Shakespeare is really "uncomfortable with what he is doing" when the thing that he is doing is the writing of a comedy? Such a notion seems both improbable and even absurd. Rather, a far more likely hypothesis is that Shakespeare knew exactly what he was doing and was more than comfortable in doing it. However, what he was doing with the character of Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor was something vastly different from the way he handled the character in the history plays. Shakespeare was an inventor, a creator, a breaker of literary conventions. There is a definite and even purposeful change in the character of Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor; in fact, there is also a definite and purposeful change in the character as he moves from 1 Henry IV to 2 Henry IV. With the character of Falstaff, Shakespeare was exerting his creative energies to the full and transcending the boundaries of dramatic conventions. The Windsor Falstaff is not a lesser comic creation than the Eastcheap Falstaff. Rather, his appearance at Windsor marks the third stage in his development as Shakespeare examined and explored the very nature of stage clowns as such characters appeared in extremely varied and multitudinous forms during the Elizabethan era.
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Prior to the examination of Falstaff as clown, a very brief survey of criticism as launched at the