Merry Wives of Windsor, The

Merry Wives of Windsor, The, comedy by English playwright William Shakespeare, which was probably written in 1599. The Merry Wives of Windsor marks the theatrical return of the bumbling knight Falstaff, who made his first appearance in Shakespeare’s history play Henry IV, Parts I and II. Tradition holds that The Merry Wives of Windsor was written at the order of Queen Elizabeth I, who wished to see Falstaff in love. To make a true lover out of Falstaff was beyond even Shakespeare’s power, but to comply with the royal command, he dashed off—in 15 days, according to tradition—a farce in which Falstaff pursues two merry but honest wives who make a fool of him.

The Merry Wives of Windsor is the one example in Shakespeare’s work of bourgeois comedy. It is realistic rather than romantic and contains hardly a trace of his poetry. Several eccentric characters—the parson, the doctor, and the jealous husband—each represent a different aspect of human temperament, or humor, which was first seen in the characters in the satirical comedies of English dramatist and poet Ben Jonson. Since Shakespeare himself had acted in Jonson’s first play of the genre, Every Man in his Humour (1598), the possibility is likely that, in his haste to complete The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare took a leaf out of his rival’s book. The combination of lively fun and good acting parts resulted in a play that probably pleased Queen Elizabeth as much as it has delighted audiences ever since.