The Merry Wives of Windsor

This second edition of The Merry Wives of Windsor focuses at every point on a theatrical understanding of the play.

William Shakespeare (Author), David Crane (Edited by)

9780521146814, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 February 2010

186 pages, 10 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.2 x 1 cm, 0.32 kg

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. In this second edition of Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor David Crane emphasises the liveliness of the play in stage terms. He also claims that this citizen comedy was an expression of Shakespeare's fundamental understanding of human life, conveyed centrally in the character of Falstaff. In the process he examines Shakespeare's free and vigorous use of different linguistic worlds. An account of the play's textual history concludes that at the time of its earliest performances Shakespeare's text was being adapted to specific theatrical needs, and as much in the possession of its players as of its author.

Introduction: the date and first occasion of the play
The world of the play
Some moments in the play
The play on the stage
Recent critical and stage interpretations
Note on the text
List of characters
THE PLAY
Textual analysis
Reading list.

Subject Areas: Shakespeare studies & criticism [DSGS], Literary studies: general [DSB], Literature: history & criticism [DS], Shakespeare plays [DDS], Literature & literary studies [D]