SOURCE: Waites, Aline. “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” Plays and Players no. 519 (February 1998): 9.

In the following review, Waites discusses Ian Judge's production of The Merry Wives of Windsor and offers high praise for Edward Petherbridge's portrayal of Ford. The critic finds that the production as a whole ran rather long, but was nonetheless “very jolly.”

Written by Shakespeare on the behest of Queen Elizabeth, this play is set in the environs of Windsor Castle, utilizing local place names. The dramatis personae include strong-minded independent women, their flawed spouses, a shrill young man of dubious sexuality, a ludicrous Welsh priest and a comedy French doctor both of whom inflict grave damage on the English language, persistently mangling it at times into incomprehension, and of course, her favourite character of all, Sir John Falstaff. It seems that the Queen was so entranced by his character that she ordered the playwright...