The Merry Wives of Windsor was first entered in the Stationers' Register on January 18, 1602 (NS):
John Busby. An excellent and pleasant conceited commedie of Sir John Faulstof and the Merry Wyves of Windesor...
Arth. Johnson. The preceding entered as assigned to him from John Busby...
It was printed later that year with the following title page:
A most pleasaunt and excellent conceited comedie, of Syr Iohn Falstaffe, and the merrie wiues of Windsor. Entermixed with sundrie variable and pleasing humors, of Syr Hugh the Welch knight, Iustice Shallow, and his wise cousin M. Slender. With the swaggering vaine of Auncient Pistoll, and Corporall Nym. By William Shakespeare. As it hath bene diuers times acted by the Right Honorable my Lord Chamberlaines seruants. Both before her Maiestie, and else-where.
London: printed by T. C. [Thomas Creede] for Arthur Iohnson, and are to be sold at his shop in Powles Church-yard, at the signe of the Flower de Leuse and the Crowne, 1602.
The 1602 1st quarto is commonly referred to as a "bad" quarto. Compared to the text of the First Folio its text is corrupt. It is thought to be a memorial reconstruction by the actor who played the part of the Host. This quarto was reprinted in 1619, as the 2nd quarto, by William Jaggard. The text of the First Folio is therefore not based on the first quarto, but rather thought to be based on the prompt book of the King's Men.
The play is thought to have been written quickly in early 1597, hard upon the completion of Henry IV Part 2, and first performed to celebrate the initiation of the newly elected Knights of the Garter on April 23, St. George's Day, that year at Windsor Castle. George Carey, Lord Hunsdon, patron of Shakespeare's company was then elected. The play makes frequent mention of Windsor Castle.
Rowe, in his Some Account of the Life &c. of Mr. William Shakespear prefaced to his 1709 edition of the works says of the play;
"She [Queen Elizabeth] was so well pleas'd with that admirable Character of Falstaff, in the two Parts of Henry the Fourth, that she commanded him to continue it for one Play more, and to shew him in Love. This is said to be the Occasion of his Writing The Merry Wives of Windsor. How well she was obey'd, the Play it self is an admirable Proof. Upon this Occasion it may not be improper to observe, that this Part of Falstaff is said to have been written originally under the Name of Oldcastle; some of that Family being then remaining, the Queen was pleas'd to command him to alter it; upon which he made use of Falstaff. The present Offence was indeed avoided; but I don't know whether the Author may not have been somewhat to blame in his second Choice, since it is certain that Sir John Falstaff, who was a Knight of the Garter, and a Lieutenant-General, was a Name of distinguish'd Merit in the Wars in France in Henry the fifth's and Henry the Sixth's Times. What Grace soever the Queen confer'd upon him, it was not to her only he ow'd the Fortune which the Reputation of his Wit made."
Rowe may have picked this up and extended it from John Dennis' dedication to his adaptation The Comical Gallant, published in 1702. Dennis says:
"This comedy was written at her [i.e., Queen Elizabeth's] command, and by her direction, and she was so eager to see it Acted, that she commanded it to be finished in fourteen days and was afterward, as Tradition tells us, very well pleas'd At the Representation."
The illustration above, right is by Kenny Meadows and first appeared in Barry Cornwall's (Bryan Waller Procter) 1843 three-volume edition of the Works. Below are links to the early texts of The Merry Wives of Windsor, including the folio links through the Fourth Folio.
- The 1602 1st quarto of The Merry Wives of Windsor from the British Library.
- The 1602 1st quarto of of The Merry Wives of Windsor from the Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by the British Library.
- The 1602 1st quarto of The Merry Wives of Windsor from the Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
- Two examples of the 1619 2nd quarto of The Merry Wives of Windsor from the British Library, the first originally possessed by Garrick, the second by George III: 1 2.
- The same two copies of the 1619 2nd quarto of The Merry Wives of Windsor from the Rare Book Room (Octavo) from volumes held by the British Library: Garrick | George III.
- The 1619 2nd quarto of The Merry Wives of Windsor from the Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
- The 1619 2nd quarto of The Merry Wives of Windsor from the Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by The National Library of Scotland. Part of the Brute collection, purchased from Major Michael Crichton Stuart on 3 April 1956.
- The 1630 3rd quarto of The Merry Wives of Windsor from the British Library.
- The 1630 3rd quarto of The Merry Wives of Windsor from the Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by the British Library.
- The 1630 3rd quarto of The Merry Wives of Windsor from the Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
- The 1630 3rd quarto of The Merry Wives of Windsor from the Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by the University of Edinburgh Library. This quarto had at one time belonged to George Steevens, the great editor. It became the property of Halliwell-Phillipps, who gave it to the library.
- The 1630 3rd quarto of The Merry Wives of Windsor from the Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by the National Library of Scotland. This volume had at one time belonged to the great editor, George Steevens. It eventually became part of the Brut collection, which purchased it from Major Michael Crichton Stuart on 3 April 1956.
- The Merry Wives of Windsor, in the First Folio of 1623 (Jaggard and Blount), from The Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by the Folger Shakespeare Library.
- The Merry Wives of Windsor, in the First Folio of 1623 (Jaggard and Blount), from a volume held by the Horace Howard Furness Memorial (Shakespeare) Library from the Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image (SCETI), University of Pennsylvania.
- The Merry Wives of Windsor, in the First Folio of 1623 (Jaggard and Blount), from the Perseus Garner, part of the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, from a volume held by Brandeis University Library.
- The Merry Wives of Windsor, in the First Folio of 1623 (Jaggard and Blount), from Internet Shakespeare Editions (University of Victoria) from a volume held by Brandeis University Library.
- The Merry Wives of Windsor, in the First Folio of 1623 (Jaggard and Blount), from Internet Shakespeare Editions (University of Victoria) from a volume held by the State Library of New South Wales.
- The Merry Wives of Windsor, in the Second Folio of 1632 (Cotes and Allot) from Internet Shakespeare Editions (University of Victoria) from a volume held by the State Library of New South Wales.
- The Merry Wives of Windsor, in the Third Folio of 1663-1664 (Chetwinde) from Internet Shakespeare Editions (University of Victoria) from a volume held by the State Library of New South Wales.
- The Merry Wives of Windsor, in the Fourth Folio of 1685 (Herringman) from Internet Shakespeare Editions (University of Victoria) from a volume held by the State Library of New South Wales.
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