The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare
"The Merry Wives of Windsor" by William Shakespeare is a comedic play written in the late 16th century. The story revolves around Sir John Falstaff, a comical knight who has decided to woo two wealthy married women, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, aiming to improve his financial situation. The misadventures of Falstaff and the clever reactions of the women set the stage for a humorous exploration of love, jealousy, and deception. At
the start of the play, we are introduced to several key characters as they engage in humorous banter. Justice Shallow, Slender, and Sir Hugh Evans discuss a potential marriage between Slender and Anne Page. Meanwhile, Falstaff plots to seduce both Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, believing this will secure him access to their husbands' wealth. As the scene unfolds, we witness the setup for a comedic rivalry where the women, aware of Falstaff’s intentions, devise a plan to outsmart him. The opening portion establishes the lively atmosphere of Windsor and hints at the ensuing chaos brought on by Falstaff's misguided pursuits. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Read or download for free
| How to read | Url | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read now! | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23044.html.images | 495 kB | |||
| EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23044.epub3.images | 280 kB | |||
| EPUB (older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23044.epub.images | 292 kB | |||
| EPUB (no images, older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23044.epub.noimages | 257 kB | |||
| Kindle | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23044.kf8.images | 803 kB | |||
| older Kindles | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23044.kindle.images | 725 kB | |||
| Plain Text UTF-8 | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23044.txt.utf-8 | 281 kB | |||
| Download HTML (zip) | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/23044/pg23044-h.zip | 380 kB | |||
| There may be more files related to this item. | |||||
About this eBook
| Author | Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 |
|---|---|
| Editor | Clark, William George, 1821-1878 |
| Editor | Glover, John, librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Title |
The Merry Wives of Windsor The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] |
| Note |
Here is the listing of titles for the entire series, which span multiple digitization efforts: Volume 1: -- #23041 Introduction and Publisher's Advertising -- #23042 The Tempest -- #23043 The Two Gentlemen of Verona -- #23044 The Merry Wives of Windsor -- #23045 Measure for Measure -- #23046 The Comedy of Errors Volume 2: #45128 -- Much Ado About Nothing -- Love’s Labour’s Lost -- A Midsummer-Night’s Dream -- The Merchant of Venice -- As You Like It Volume 3: #50559 -- The Taming of The Shrew -- All's Well That Ends Well -- Twelfth Night; or, What You Will -- The Winter's Tale Volume 4: #50095 -- King John -- King Richard II. -- The First Part of King Henry IV. -- The Second Part of King Henry IV. -- King Henry V. Volume 5: #49297 -- The First Part of King Henry VI -- The Second Part of King Henry VI -- The Third Part of King Henry VI -- King Richard III Volume 6: #49007 -- King Henry VIII -- Troilus and Cressida -- Coriolanus -- Titus Andronicus Volume 7: #47715 -- Romeo and Juliet -- Timon of Athens -- Julius Cæsar -- Macbeth Volume 8: #49008 -- Hamlet -- King Lear -- Othello Volume 9: future -- Antony and Cleopatra -- Cymbeline -- Pericles -- Poems |
| Note | Wikipedia page about this book: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merry_Wives_of_Windsor |
| Credits |
Produced by Louise Hope, Jonathan Ingram and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 94.0 (5th grade). Very easy to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PR: Language and Literatures: English literature |
| Subject | Comedy plays |
| Subject | Falstaff, John, Sir (Fictitious character) -- Drama |
| Subject | Married women -- Drama |
| Subject | Windsor (Windsor and Maidenhead, England) -- Drama |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 23044 |
| Release Date | Nov 23, 2007 |
| Most Recently Updated | Sep 27, 2025 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 689 downloads in the last 30 days. |
| Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free! | |