The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare's only thoroughly English comedy, created an archetypal literary figure in the shape of the devious, irrepressible John Falstaff. This stimulating new edition celebrates the play as a joyous exploration of language, but also places elements of its plot firmly in a continental, specifically Italian, tradition of romantic comedy. It draws out the complexities of Merry Wives as a multi-plot play, and takes a fresh and challenging look at both textual and dating issues; a facsimile of the first Quarto is included as an appendix. The play's extensive performance history, both dramatic and operatic, is fully explored and discussed.'This is a significant and substantive edition, in that nothing has been taken for granted, everything has been opened to reconsideration. The commentary is exceptionally detailed and attentive to questions of language and meaning.'John Jowett, Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, Shakespeare Quarterly

 

This book is part of a book series called Arden Shakespeare .

This book is aimed at the following children: secondary school , university .

There are 364 pages in this book. This book was published 1999 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC .

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English dramatist, poet, and actor, generally regarded as the greatest playwright of all time. Giorgio Melchiori is Emeritus Professor of La Sapienza at the University of Rome. ANN THOMPSON is Professor of English and Director of the London Shakespeare Centre and King's College London David Scott Kastan is the George M. Bodman Professor of English at Yale University, USA. Professor Richard Proudfoot served as Senior General Editor of the Arden Shakespeare for 35 years, until his retirement from King's in 1999. In 2001 The Arden Shakespeare published Proudfoot's Shakespeare: Text, Stage and Canon a critical overview of the scholarly achievements made in the field of Shakespeare studies by the end of the twentieth century. Rene Weis is Professor of English at University College London and a distinguished editor and biographer of Shakespeare.