Sofa Spotlight - The Merry Wives of Windsor, William Shakespeare

I think this might be the first one that hasn’t annoyed me in some way, and it might even have made me chuckle. Which is something I’ve been waiting to happen since I started reading these comedies! The basic plot follows Falstaff, a knight who is short on money. To solve his money problems he decides to court two married women, who are fairly wealthy. He sends them letters that are almost identical, and somehow not only do both the women work out his plan, but so do their husbands.

The wives lead Falstaff on a merry dance that ends up with him being attacked by fairies and all being put right at the end.  This was the first play where I was interested to find out what would happen. Full points for that, and I like plots that involve someone being hoist by their own petard, as it were. So this may not be the strongest of Shakespeare’s plays but I liked it, even if the characters may not have been the most morally upright.