Shakespeare Fans discussion
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Group Readings
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The Merry Wives Of Windsor
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Actually I think TMWOW should be approached with no reference at all to Henry IV. Yes, I would be interested in reading it.
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And I am glad to hear you think it would be fine without H4...even should be approached without.
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Candy wrote: "Well, I've got my copy from the library...I dont know if you are out there Martin or anyone lese who feels like reading it? If not I will read and maybe at a later date we may be able to make a gro..."Candy, I'm game for the TMWOW. An act a week?
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the energy and glee that opens the very first scene is exactly what the doctor ordered...for me at least. I feel my heart expanding as I read and I have a shit eating grin on my face this whole first act.
The lines I'm howling....
What says my bully rook speak scholarly and wisely
O base Hungarian wight! Wilt thou the spigot wield
An old cloak makes a new jerkin
He was gotten in drink is not the humor conceited?
I do mean to make love with Fords wife: I spy entertainment in her
And the names...Dickens must have learned some name making from this play
Candy, I agree. The first act is light-hearted and hilarious. It reminds me of Marx Brothers routines (especially the malapropisms of Chico).Some of my favorite lines:
"I'll ne'er be drunk whilst I live again, but in honest, civil, godly company... If I be drunk, I'll be drunk with those that have the fear of God, and not with drunken knaves."
"I'll marry her, sir, at your request; but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance."
I haven't read or seen this play before, so I don't really know where it's going. But the idea of the fat, gouty knight Falstaff setting himself up as a seducer and "player" on women's affections for money, is too funny.
At the same time, Shakespeare has set up some foils to Falstaff (Evans and Shallow) who are even more ridiculous and buffoonish than Falstaff himself.
And now Falstaff's sidekicks have deserted him and plan to throw a monkey wrench into his schemes... Sounds like things are about to get complicated. Two letters, two women-- what could possibly go wrong?
So far this reminds me of Restoration comedy, or perhaps of Shakepeare's near contemporary, Thomas Middleton. Lots of fun.
I just saw this play this past weekend. It was community theater and quite well done. They set it in the 1970's, which allowed for "funny" music & costumes, to compliment the funny onstage.
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Julia I would love to see this play performed!
I'm here but just a little bit juggling work. I am off next week starting this Saturday so look forward to really digging in here...
It was actually the second time I've seen "Merry Wives." The first time was approximately 150 years ago, when I was a mere pup. It was my very first Shakespeare play. I saw it at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival with my family.This time was at a now suburban 300+ year old orchard and farm, in Upstate New York, where during the curtain speech they told us to turn off our cellphones and that we weren't allowed to pick the u-pick berries!
I'm excited to read Merry Wives. It's a first time read for me. Since I just started, I'm only halfway through Act II. Not sure how far behind I am from everyone else. I'm interested to see how Falstaff thinks he's going to get away with this scheme, especially since his cronies are backstabbing him in Act II.
Hi, Renee, you're not behind me at all. We're covering this one act per week, and this weekend is when we start talking about Act II. (I think I'll get to finish reading Act II on Sunday.) Glad to hear you're joining in on the joint reading!
I'm getting together my act and anticipating TMWOW. Almost ready.
I'm using the Signet Classic newly revised edition, skipping temporarily the Shakespeare Overview. It has also a neat Introduction that questions why Shakespeare used Windsor rather than Warwickshire and suggests why Shakespeare wrote the play. That latter concerns more the overplot (the Castle's "grand affair", an installation) than the "Falstaff-in-love" main plot. There's also an underplot (the Anne Page/Fenton romance) and a subplot (Frederick Duke of Württemberg's men stealing three horses). I've used the intro's terminology to describe the plots. The Introduction questions also why Henry IV and V and TMMOW share several character names but not identical biographies. I read that Introduction and the entire Act I and found helpful footnotes which translated some Middle English words. I also made a character array to pinpoint the main characters and their relatives, followers, servants, etc.
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I'm also interested in the Anne Page/Fenton romance (I read ahead a little). I really like this play! Of the Shakespeare classes I've taken, I was never required to read it before. I love how everyone knows what Falstaff is up to, and plays along with him. I'm curious to see who laughs last in the end. Favorite Quotes so far:
That I would have sworn his disposition would have gone to the truth of his words; but they do no more adhere and keep place together than the Hundredth Psalm to the tune of "Greensleeves." (Mistress Ford to Mistress Page) - I can't help but try to sin the Psalm to the tune of Greensleeves after reading that.
Thou art a Castilion-King Urinal. Hector of Greece, my boy! (Host to Dr Caius)
Yes. I find, too, the additional help of commentaries helpful. I was following YouTube's Cork Shakespeare of Act I, scenes 1,2,3,4 and was reading its accompanying "Summary" and "Commentary" and was finding that beneficial. I really think that Cork performance very natural. Some other performance does not convey the ease of performing the lines. Some of the info there reiterated that 1-2 Henry IV have Falstaff and that Henry V continues Falstaff's "sidekicks". Moreover, Queen Elizabeth apparently enjoyed the Falstaff character, asking Shakespeare to use his mocked character again, i.e, the result being "The Merry Wives of Windsor". It's the Fords and Pages, especially the two women doing the mocking. The play mocks also the lawyer and the two accent-speaking characters clergyman Evans and Frenchman Caius.
A motif is "marriage". There's Anne Page's several suitors and the Fords' and Pages' marriages.
I knew little about this play going in (except that it was sort of a knock-off sequel written at royal request) so I didn't have high expectations. But Act 1 was quite amusing, so I was pleasantly surprised.Now the second act turns out to be even better than the first! Falstaff’s misguided love letters and doggerel to the middle-aged (or older) wives, are hilarious enough. But Mrs. Page’s wit in response is absolutely devastating: “How shall I be revenged on him? I think the best way were to entertain him with hope, till the wicked fire of lust have melted him in his own grease.” Ouch! Or the rather bawdy image of her preferring to “lie under Mount Pelion” than with the fat knight. It’s easy to see that the buffoonish Falstaff will be no match for the clever Mrs. Page.
I also liked the exchange in scene 2 where Falstaff ridicules Pistol’s pretensions to honor, especially when compared to Falstaff’s own.
Then in scene 3, when Ford plans to put his wife’s virtue to the test by bribing Falstaff to seduce her, we get into a major development in the plot. Ford’s position is foolish in the extreme, of course, but it is a conventional foolishness at least. Shakespeare uses a similar plot device in Cymbeline. All in all, the “Merry Wives of Windsor” seems to be playing out more like a Thomas Middleton play (or even like the later Restoration comedies) than some of Shakespeare’s more familiar romantic comedies about drippy youths.
I’d love to see this in performance, but it’s great comedy even on the page.
I read the play and watched the film several years ago. The play is still fresh even though I recognize the play's characters, scenes, and outcome. I've so far reread and viewed Acts 1-3 and taken some notes. The play's characters pretend a lot. Mistress Page and Mistress Ford plan to revenge Falstaff's lusty interest while raising Falstaff's hopes of romance; Ford creates a second identity (Brooke) to ferret out Mistress Ford's unfaithfulness; Fenton reveals his initially insincere courtship of Anne Page; the matchmaker Mistress Quickly promises three suitors the hand of Anne Page. The reader knows what to expect, nevertheless enjoying the characters' consternation and hastiness when surprises happen.
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Catch up in a bit...sorry about that...
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I would really like to read this play and make a strong effort here.
Anyone else interested?
Say the end of October?
Candy, I would be very willing to join a MWOW read, after the Lear read is well and truly over, even if few people wish to participate. I suggest we armtwist our mutual friend Bill Kerwinhttp://www.stfrancisdesaleshs.org/tea...
into participating, in the hope that we can make him change his low opinion of this play!
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October for merry Wives then!
And besides...I am still writing notes on The Tempest!
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Perhaps we could seduce him into being the discussion leader?
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Do you think it is valuable to also have read in accordance Henry IV?