The Merry Wives of Windsor

Name: The Merry Wives of Windsor
Author: William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

free · 24,937 words · 2 h 50 m audiobook, read by volunteers for LibriVox · first published 1602

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Dramatis Personae

Sir John Falstaff
Fenton, a young gentleman
Shallow, a country justice
Slender, cousin to Shallow
Ford, a Gentleman dwelling at Windsor
Page, a Gentleman dwelling at Windsor
William Page, a boy, son to Page
Sir Hugh Evans, a Welsh parson
Doctor Caius, a French physician
Host of the Garter Inn
Bardolph, Pistol, Nym; followers of Falstaff
Robin, page to Falstaff
Simple, servant to Slender
Rugby, servant to Doctor Caius
Mistress Ford
Mistress Page
Anne Page, her daughter, in love with Fenton
Mistress Quickly, servant to Doctor Caius
Servants to Page, Ford, etc.

Scene: Windsor and the neighbourhood

Act I

restoring your place…

fetching the rest…

More by William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
You get a play that keeps changing its mind about love, from the quarrelling lovers in the forest to Bottom blundering through his amateur performance. The language is playful and slippery, and Puck gives the whole thing a mischievous sense that human beings are never quite in control.
All’s Well That Ends Well
Helena chases a man who plainly doesn't deserve her, and the play knows it, which is what makes it interesting. If you like your comedies uneasy, with a bed trick and an ending that only half convinces, this one will stick with you.
Antony and Cleopatra
These two aren't young lovers, they're middle-aged, vain, magnificent messes who keep wrecking empires over each other, and you half want to shake them. Stay for Enobarbus, the dry-eyed friend whose barge speech about Cleopatra is worth the whole play.

Dramatis Personae

Sir John Falstaff

Fenton, a young gentleman

Shallow, a country justice

Slender, cousin to Shallow

Ford, a Gentleman dwelling at Windsor

Page, a Gentleman dwelling at Windsor

William Page, a boy, son to Page

Sir Hugh Evans, a Welsh parson

Doctor Caius, a French physician

Host of the Garter Inn

Bardolph, Pistol, Nym; followers of Falstaff

Robin, page to Falstaff

Simple, servant to Slender

Rugby, servant to Doctor Caius

Mistress Ford

Mistress Page

Anne Page, her daughter, in love with Fenton

Mistress Quickly, servant to Doctor Caius

Servants to Page, Ford, etc.

Scene: Windsor and the neighbourhood

More by William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

You get a play that keeps changing its mind about love, from the quarrelling lovers in the forest to Bottom blundering through his amateur performance. The language is playful and slippery, and Puck gives the whole thing a mischievous sense that human beings are never quite in control.

All’s Well That Ends Well

Helena chases a man who plainly doesn't deserve her, and the play knows it, which is what makes it interesting. If you like your comedies uneasy, with a bed trick and an ending that only half convinces, this one will stick with you.

Antony and Cleopatra

These two aren't young lovers, they're middle-aged, vain, magnificent messes who keep wrecking empires over each other, and you half want to shake them. Stay for Enobarbus, the dry-eyed friend whose barge speech about Cleopatra is worth the whole play.