The Merry Wives of Windsor is unique to Shakespeare's canon for several reasons. First, it's his only thoroughly English comedy, meaning it provides the audience with a wide spectrum of provincial English characters living provincial English lives in a provincial English town. Choosing England, specifically Windsor, as a setting is not atypical for Shakespeare (consider the Histories); but choosing to situate the comedy in his own historical time sets this play in its own category. The play is also unique because Shakespeare borrows the audience's favorite characters from his "Henry Plays" — Justice Shallow, Mistress Quickly, Sir John Falstaff and his band of henchmen — and transports them two centuries forward into an England that is vastly different from their old land. This novel idea to reuse some very popular characters in such a different setting is rumored to have come to Shakespeare from Queen Elizabeth herself.

According to the eighteenth-century editor and scholar John Dennis, Queen Elizabeth so enjoyed the character of Falstaff from the two Henry IV plays that she commissioned Shakespeare to write a play showing "Falstaff in love," and commanded that Shakespeare's company present it to her in fourteen days. The validity of this story (undocumented prior to the John Dennis account) remains a mystery, but The Merry Wives of Windsor's status as one of Shakespeare's "occasional plays" — those written for special occasions — endures regardless of absolute proof. Some critics have used this rumor to excuse what they consider Shakespeare's "hasty writing" — his dominant use of prose (it contains the largest ratio of prose to verse in the canon), and the play's limited thematic scope — as the unfortunate side-effects of a rushed process of composition. Other critics have gone so far as to dismiss the play entirely, citing not only the aforementioned examples but also suggesting that the Falstaff of this play is a mere shadow of the great Sir John that reigned over the Boarshead tavern in the Henry IV plays. Despite these criticisms, The Merry Wives of Windsor has endured as a popular and satisfying piece of theatre, thanks to Shakespeare's intricate interweaving of several plot lines, idiosyncratic characters and inspired exploration of the multiple varieties of the English language.

Shakespeare borrowed the main plot for Merry Wives from the same source he used in writing The Merchant of Venice: a collection of Italian novellas entitled Il pecorone by Ser Giovanni Fiorentino. One of the stories deals with a young student named Bucciolo who enlists the help of his school master to learn "the art of loving." Unbeknownst to Bucciolo, his first rendezvous is with a young woman who turns out to be his master's wife.

In borrowing this basic story, Shakespeare makes a series of masterful changes. He replaces an inexperienced student with an aging debauchee, Sir John Falstaff; adds a second husband-wife duo to serve as foils to the "false woman" and her jealous husband; and places the Italian tale in Windsor, England — a small town that continues, even now, to play host to its nation's elite. In expanding the theme of cuckoldry, which is often signified by antlers or horns, Shakespeare goes beyond simply presenting individuals engaged in the act of deception; even the deceivers themselves are deceived. In Shakespeare's Windsor no selfish act goes unpunished.

As host town to the Royal English Court during the summer season, Windsor was unique for retaining its small-town status while simultaneously keeping its finger on the pulse of contemporary cosmopolitan life. In fact, in this play, the Host of the Garter Inn is so well known by his occupation, namely playing host to foreign dignitaries and guests of the Court, that the character's proper name is not only a mystery but is tacitly considered too pedestrian to be relevant. Shakespeare took the opportunity with this comedy to frequently tap into his own small-town roots in Stratford-upon-Avon by creating characters (including the young, reluctant schoolboy, William) and situations that paralleled his own history. The provincial life of Shakespeare's childhood, however, had changed by the time he wrote this comedy (as the saying goes, "one can never go home"), and I suspect Shakespeare used this play to explore the ideological clashes that occur within evolving societies.

In a town like Windsor, with its nouveau-riche inhabitants embodying the concerns and trappings of a prosperous, proper and polite mercantile society, Falstaff represents a regression to the romanticized ideals of valor on the battlefield, wit upon the tongue and passion in the heart. As English society evolved, a man like Falstaff found it increasingly difficult to fit in, and this is indeed Falstaff's fundamental struggle in the play. Recognizing that Windsor is far different than his old haunts, Falstaff, who lives on a small pension at the Garter Inn, attempts to adapt to the new manners of the English merchant-class bourgeois. It is his grappling to adjust in this new society that functions as the comedic spine of The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Shakespeare was keenly aware of the malleability of the English language and delights in its variety and his own mastery in its manipulation in Merry Wives. Dialects, malapropisms, foreign languages, arcane words and regional vocabulary all find their home in this play.

A small town in Elizabethan England, a bittersweet acceptance of societal progress, a manic passion for language — the more one studies this play, the deeper one understands the poet himself. Shakespeare's personal touch throughout Merry Wives is simply too tangible to deny, and for this reason we have made what is a rather unorthodox choice for The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey: rather than create a metaphorical landscape or alternate time period for the play, we have chosen to set it in Windsor, England, somewhere between 1620 and 1640. Using this close-to-the-original time frame as the inspiration for our modern performance, we allow the story to live close to its original context while freeing us from the strict confines of historical accuracy. We are delighted to examine this dynamic period of English life, to explore these great Shakespearean archetypes, and to merge our contemporary theatrical aesthetic with this historical era. Many renowned productions in the past few decades have proved that Merry Wives can be presented in contemporary or mythic settings; we are returning to the source and relishing in it.

Since this play kicks off the 2005 Season of RevelationsRevolutions here at The Shakespeare Theatre, I want to take a moment to address how Merry Wives figures into this compelling season theme. The play offers a boisterous beginning within this thematic frame, and the many revelations of the play are most often followed with a laugh. Secrets, plots and passions are often revealed to the wrong person, at the wrong time, or both; and, as it should be in a great comedy, the number of revelations are almost too numerous to count. Although there are minor "revolutions" throughout the play, the major revolution (and a driving force behind the action) is the wives' revolt against Falstaff. This play tracks the liberation of two wives who begin the play fulfilling their traditional roles and end the play leading the entire community in action against Falstaff. It is through Falstaff that Mistresses Ford and Page not only cure Master Ford of his jealousy, but perhaps cure Falstaff of his arrogance. The final revolution, that of the young Anne Page, cures her parents of their selfishness. Though these domestic and societal revolutions, and through them, the characters are forced to discover and face their own follies.

—Jason King Jones, Director