The Merry Wives of Windsor (Arkangel Complete Shakespeare) [UNABRIDGED]

Rating:
Summary: Good Cast Make Bad Play Bearable
Review: "The Merry Wives of Windsor" is one of Shakespeare's worst plays. It lacks the sharp wit of many of his other comedies, tending for low puns all the way through. The situations are ridiculous. Is Falstaff in a laundry hamper, or sitting in the woods and being prodded by children, funny? Of course, the Elizabethans liked bear-baiting (mentioned in the play). And Shakespeare seemed to want this play to be particularly funny for making fun of Welsh and French accents.

What raises this recording is the cast, particularly Michael Hordern's Ford. Ford is a bitter, jealous character, who actually believes his wife might have a dalliance with the physically repulsive Falstaff. But Hordern's befuddled jealousy actually make thankless lines funny. Anthony Quayle, a very good actor, blusters too much as Falstaff, but it must be difficult to represent Falstaff in sound alone and so that's excusable.

The problems with the play are Shakespeare's. He starts a lot of things he doesn't explore (such as the bizarre horse-stealing episode) and there are too many characters to keep up with comfortably unless one follows along with the text the first time through. But if you need to get through and understand "The Merry Wives" for whatever reason, listening to this fine cast and skimming along with the text is the most enjoyable way to do it.

Rating:
Summary: Not hilarious, but very funny!
Review: Allright. Maybe as far as the comedies go, I was spoiled by the exquisite comical masterpiece "The Comedy of Errors." But this is without a doubt my 2nd favorite comedy. I can not help but simultaneously laugh and feel sorry for poor Ford when he suspects his wife is interested in Falstaff and goes into his jealous rages. One scene I could not forget if I tried is when Ford feels bad for suspecting his wife, is humiliated in front of everyone, and apologizes.Only a bit later he finds his wife was with Falstaff and she has another arranged meeting with him! But this is only a small part of the many laughs that await. Shakespeare only had a few days to write this play, but this shows that even under pressure he wrote great!

Rating:
Summary: I read this book and it brought me laughableness a lot.
Review: Book Report The Merry Wives of Windsor The Merry Wives of Windsor is loved by many people in the world because of the plentiful expressions, skillful characters' description and the natural laughable. It is not only a common comedy, but also a signpost from that we can see many things of the Elizabethan age when the author-William Shakespeare- lived. And this is one of the few works that he composed by himself, in other words, there are no any source to create it. The reason of coming into existence about this is unique and interesting. When Queen Elizabeth watched one of his historical plays (Henry the fourth), she was very pleased with John Falstaff in the play, then she ordered Shakespeare that he would make John be a hero and have him love in another play. It is said that the beginning of the story. There are lots of characters in the play as the other Shakespeare's works. The whole content is, Sir John Falstaff falls in love with Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, but the two mistresses make plan of ill-treating to him to refuse his love and to show their faithful and virtuous hearts to their husbands. Meanwhile, Fenton(a young gentleman), Slender(a country justice's kinsman) and Doctor Caius(a French physician) are all in love with Anne(daughter of Page and Mistress Page), and they think for wining her love respectively. At the end of the story, after Mr. and Mrs. Ford, Mr. and Mrs. Page and others make plans and ill-treat to Falstaff in the woods, all of them get reconciled with, while Anne Page get married with Fenton, and come to an end with joy. Besides them, some people who have strong personalities appear on the stage. For example, Mistress Quickly(Caius' servant) has a ready wit but a little stupid, or Sir Hugh Evans(a Welsh parson) who always speaks in rural accent but it makes us fanny and he plays an active part at the end of this play. We could see Shakespeare's genius in this play for there has many puns and unique accent which used by Hugh Evans. And it bring more cheerful mood to the play and laugh to the audience. Shakespeare described many men who is jealous of their wives or lovers in his works, and one of them is Mr. Ford who appears in this play. He has faith in his wife's affair and it brings some troubles. When this work was written, a woman generally could not get married to a man if he was not permitted by her father. However the times went by, many Pulitans came to insist that men and women could get married only when they loved each other. Fenton has also the pulitanical view for marriage. It was a new thought and I think Anne Page was attracted to his such way of thinking as well as his other good points. Also at that time in England, there was a tendency for every people to criticize about things which were against the social morals through passages of caricatures. For example, it was a fashion of the time for women to wear trousers but people criticized it, or they criticized for jealousy and affairs. In this play, John Falstaff is ill-treated by everyone and has a terrible experiences, and that's because he is immoral and unfair. Like these, this comedy has several points, and we can see the cultural features of the Shakespeare's period. Although I have ever read his works, I thought this one was very interesting and I came to like it the best. The character's personalities are made full use and I could see the author's abilities from that, too. The mistresses play active parts and they are very cheerful, livery and merry just as the title is. I think it made the audience(especially women) enjoy to watch, and the merriness of this play has been one of the most big reasons to attract people even nowadays.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favourites with Falstaff
Review: I certainly don't agree with many of the reviews of this play. To me it is one of Shakespeare's funniest. I truly enjoyed it. One of my favourite Shakespearean characters is Falstaff, and he appears in a number of Shakespeare's comedies. He makes an appearance in this one, and he is wonderful. The scene of this play is in Windsor, England. The play follows the merry wives in their interactions with their husbands and with their families and servants. This play is unique too, because we see Falstaff in love in this one. This may be one of Shakespeare's lesser known comedies, but it should be read and enjoyed. Don't let some of these reviews stop you from the sheer enjoyment of this play.

Rating:
Summary: a comedy that is actually funny
Review: i've just finished reading/watching all of shakespeare's comedies and mww is one of the funnier ones. it is a lighthearted look at marital jealousy and features one of shakespeare's great fools, falstaff (of henry iv fame). the out-and-out funniest shakepearean play is still "taming of the shrew", imho, but mwv runs well ahead of the laggards, and certainly well ahead of such better known plays as "twelfth night" and "as you like it".

Rating:
Summary: Falstaff fallshard
Review: Legend has it that the Queen herself commissioned the writing of this play, saying she wished to see a comedy in which Falstaff, her favorite character from the histories, falls in love. Shakespeare, naturally, did a masterful job, crafting not only a comedy with plenty of belly laughs in it (literally), but also a play about women in power for the ultimate woman in power.

I saw this play performed recently and it brought home to me how much it really is about the character of Mrs. Hood. She is written to be a sexually powerful, or powerfully sexual, character. Powerful enough to justify her husband's jealousy despite her trustworthiness -- for if we are to receive him as one of the "good guys", we must be able to sympathize with him. Powerful enough to justify Falstaff's return again and again. He is a fool, but a lovable fool, so again we need to be able to sympathize.
This is not Britney Spears sexuality. This is Mae West/Marilyn Monroe sexuality. The kind where she could be doing the most vulgar thing -- eating a cheeseburger, for instance -- and the men around her are still aroused. And she is in full control of it, even as it causes chaos in the men around her. If an actress can bring this to the role, this play sings, it swings, it sparkles and flies. If this is missing, if she is simply a normal woman, the counterpart of Mrs. Whatever, the jokes are strained, the pacing slow and the whole thing feels a bit washed up.

Rating:
Summary: Falstaff fallshard
Review: Legend has it that the Queen herself commissioned the writing of this play, saying she wished to see a comedy in which Falstaff, her favorite character from the histories, falls in love. Shakespeare, naturally, did a masterful job, crafting not only a comedy with plenty of belly laughs in it (literally), but also a play about women in power for the ultimate woman in power.

I saw this play performed recently and it brought home to me how much it really is about the character of Mrs. Hood. She is written to be a sexually powerful, or powerfully sexual, character. Powerful enough to justify her husband's jealousy despite her trustworthiness -- for if we are to receive him as one of the "good guys", we must be able to sympathize with him. Powerful enough to justify Falstaff's return again and again. He is a fool, but a lovable fool, so again we need to be able to sympathize.
This is not Britney Spears sexuality. This is Mae West/Marilyn Monroe sexuality. The kind where she could be doing the most vulgar thing -- eating a cheeseburger, for instance -- and the men around her are still aroused. And she is in full control of it, even as it causes chaos in the men around her. If an actress can bring this to the role, this play sings, it swings, it sparkles and flies. If this is missing, if she is simply a normal woman, the counterpart of Mrs. Whatever, the jokes are strained, the pacing slow and the whole thing feels a bit washed up.

Rating:
Summary: Witty & Fun
Review: Shakespeare, considering he wrote this little gem of a comedy in a mere 14 days for the Virgin Queen, pulls off a play that proves both witty and fun. Unequivocally, The Merry Wives of Windsor makes for a more enjoyable play if seen live. Nonetheless, reading it is the 2nd best thing.

Sir John Falstaff is once again such a fool - but a lovable and hilarious one at that. Having read Henry V - where Falstaff ostensibly had met his end - I was pleased to see him so alive(pardon the pun) in this short, albeit clever play. It is no surprise that The Merry Wives of Windsor enjoyed such a long and successful stage run during Shakespeare's day and continues to be one of his most popularly staged plays. Recommended as a fun break from the more serious and murderous Shakespearean tragedies.

"Why, then the world's mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open." - Pistol

Rating:
Summary: I read this book and it brought me laughableness a lot.
Review: The Merry Wives of Windsor is loved by many people in the world because of the plentiful expressions, skillful characters' description and the natural laughable. It is not only a common comedy, but also a signpost from that we can see many things of the Elizabethan age when the author-William Shakespeare- lived. And this is one of the few works that he composed by himself, in other words, there are no any source to create it. The reason of coming into existence about this is unique and interesting. When Queen Elizabeth watched one of his historical plays (Henry the fourth), she was very pleased with John Falstaff in the play, then she ordered Shakespeare that he would make John be a hero and have him love in another play. It is said that the beginning of the story. There are lots of characters in the play as the other Shakespeare's works. The whole content is, Sir John Falstaff falls in love with Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, but the two mistresses make plan of ill-treating to him to refuse his love and to show their faithful and virtuous hearts to their husbands. Meanwhile, Fenton(a young gentleman), Slender(a country justice's kinsman) and Doctor Caius(a French physician) are all in love with Anne(daughter of Page and Mistress Page), and they think for wining her love respectively. At the end of the story, after Mr. and Mrs. Ford, Mr. and Mrs. Page and others make plans and ill-treat to Falstaff in the woods, all of them get reconciled with, while Anne Page get married with Fenton, and come to an end with joy. Besides them, some people who have strong personalities appear on the stage. For example, Mistress Quickly(Caius' servant) has a ready wit but a little stupid, or Sir Hugh Evans(a Welsh parson) who always speaks in rural accent but it makes us fanny and he plays an active part at the end of this play. We could see Shakespeare's genius in this play for there has many puns and unique accent which used by Hugh Evans. And it bring more cheerful mood to the play and laugh to the audience. Shakespeare described many men who is jealous of their wives or lovers in his works, and one of them is Mr. Ford who appears in this play. He has faith in his wife's affair and it brings some troubles. When this work was written, a woman generally could not get married to a man if he was not permitted by her father. However the times went by, many Pulitans came to insist that men and women could get married only when they loved each other. Fenton has also the pulitanical view for marriage. It was a new thought and I think Anne Page was attracted to his such way of thinking as well as his other good points. Also at that time in England, there was a tendency for every people to criticize about things which were against the social morals through passages of caricatures. For example, it was a fashion of the time for women to wear trousers but people criticized it, or they criticized for jealousy and affairs. In this play, John Falstaff is ill-treated by everyone and has a terrible experiences, and that's because he is immoral and unfair. Like these, this comedy has several points, and we can see the cultural features of the Shakespeare's period. Although I have ever read his works, I thought this one was very interesting and I came to like it the best. The character's personalities are made full use and I could see the author's abilities from that, too. The mistresses play active parts and they are very cheerful, livery and merry just as the title is. I think it made the audience(especially women) enjoy to watch, and the merriness of this play has been one of the most big reasons to attract people even nowadays.

Rating:
Summary: Shakespeare's FUNNIEST play!!!!
Review: This is definitely Shakespeare's funniest play. This play doesn't have the great quotes or great drama or great romance or any great meaning, but it is just simply hilarious. Sir John Falstaff is one of the greatest comedic characters in all of literature and does not disappoint in this play.

'The Merchant of Venice' is great if you are looking for a 'Comedy' with meaning and social significance, but if you simply want to laugh your butt off you have to read 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'.