Publisher's Synopsis
When the softly flowing Thames reaches the wooded country near Windsor, it curves round the base of a hill on which stands a fortress home beloved by many English kings and queens. By the sixteenth century a small town had grown up beneath the castle walls, and this was the scene chosen for THE MERRY WIVES. Here Shakespeare, writing between 1598 and 1600, returns in spirit to the English countryside and spices his text with its rough humour and fairy lore. It is clear from the names of people and places in this play that he knew Windsor well.
