Falstaff in the Laundry Basket

The Merry Wives of Windsor

William Shakespearec. 1597
ShakespeareGruelingComedyEnglishShort · 87 pages
Influence12th pct
Popularity21st pct
Where it ranks
#172of 194Overall#31of 38Shakespeare

Read this if you…

  • want to read all of Falstaff's plays (by far the worst)
  • want a farcical comedy making fun of the lecherous fat guy

Skip this if you…

  • aren't willing to go slow, read notes, look up analyses of famous passages (only way to "get" shakespeare)
  • foolishly think shakespeare is overrated
  • haven't already read all the classic comedies (this is the worst one)

Why It Matters

This is Shakespeare's one purely domestic comedy, Falstaff in the suburbs getting pranked by middle-class wives who run circles around him. It's about as close as Shakespeare gets to a sitcom, and watching ordinary townsfolk outsmart a blustering aristocrat gives it a leveling streak you didn't see much in 1597. Critics tend to shrug at it, but audiences have always liked it.

The Groblé Take

It was fun to just mess w falstaff the whole time but didn’t get into any of the other characters

Connections

Where to go next

Built Onwhat came beforeThe Merry Wives of…Metamorphoses

  • Metamorphoses by Ovid. The Merry Wives of Windsor built on it. - The cuckold's-horns climax at Herne's Oak is Ovid's Diana-and-Actaeon myth in disguise — the antlered man hunted down by his own pursuers - Pistol names the hound 'Ringwood', a dog-name lifted straight from Arthur Golding's English *Metamorphoses* — the smoking gun that Shakespeare had Ovid's text in hand - Knowing the Actaeon myth turns Falstaff's antlers from a sight gag into a punishment with a 1,500-year pedigree
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Gallery

Depicted in Art

The two merry wives bundle the panicked, oversize Falstaff into a buck-basket of dirty linen as Ford's approach is announced; the women lean in with theatrical urgency.

Henry Fuseli, 1792

Drawing of Falstaff disguised with antlers between the two wives at Herne's Oak, the moment before the fairy tormentors arrive.

Henry Fuseli, 1790

Shallow nudges the reluctant Slender toward Anne Page in a country garden; Slender's hangdog expression undercuts the courtship pretense.

Charles Robert Leslie, 1825

Falstaff in stag's head and antlers stands between the two wives in Windsor Park at night, the moment before the staged fairy ambush.

Robert Smirke

Falstaff in stag's antlers is mobbed by torch-bearing fairies and Windsor children at the base of the great oak; the wives and husbands watch from the edge of the firelight.

George Cruikshank, 1857

Group composition of Windsor townspeople around Falstaff, capturing the play's domestic-comedy social texture.

Charles Robert Leslie

Editions

Recommended Editions

#1Top Pick

Folger Shakespeare Library

2004

Folger's the readable one. Text on one page, notes on the facing page, written in plain English instead of textbook-speak. Catches every word and reference you'd otherwise Google, without breaking the scene to do it.

Buy on Bookshop
#2

SparkNotes (No Fear Shakespeare)

2003

#3

Arden Shakespeare

2000

$110.00Buy

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Deep Dive

What It's About

Spoiler warning

This summary gives away plot details.

Notable Quotes

“Why, then the world's mine oyster.”

— Pistol, The Merry Wives of Windsor

“Why, then the world's mine oyster, Which I with sword will open.”

— Pistol, Act II, Scene 2

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