Chaps. 18-20 Summary and Analysis

The Merry Wives of Windsor

pp. 315-318

The author mainly admires The Merry Wives of Windsor play as the basis for Verdi's opera Falstaff. The Falstaff shown here is a false Falstaff compared with the Henry IV plays. The play could be funny as a sadomasochistic exercise, but not in a serious way. The Sir John Falstaff in love theme is perhaps a play to propitiate Queen Elizabeth I with some light humor. Shakespeare knew that Marlowe had fallen out of favor and had been murdered by the English Secret Service, so he did not want to end up the same way.

Henry V

pp. 319-324

The play Henry V had been used as a patriotic statement, but actually it does not have the variety of expression of the play Henry IV. Amid the glory of battles and the...