Merry Wives of Windsor

The sub-plot to this play is taken directly from Edward de Vere's youth, spent in the household of his guardian, Lord Burghley. Even the characters' names are recognizable. As a ward of court from the age of 12, the Earl of Oxford's upbringing was given over to the charge of William Cecil, later Lord Burghley. At Cecil House, in London's Strand, young Edward was joined by another ward of similar age, Edward Manners, the 3rd Earl of Rutland. Both young men grew up together in company with their guardian's daughter, Anne, six years younger than Edward.

The Merry Wives of Windsor takes up the story much later, when marriage plans were being considered. Lord Burghley had subsequently met young Philip Sidney, the 17 year-old Earl of Leicester's nephew, (see picture, painted 5 years later) and saw him as a potential husband for his daughter. Against this, Burghley's wife, Lady Mildred, was already looking more favourably upon her husband's ward, Lord Rutland. But Anne had eyes only for Oxford.

In the play, this little drama becomes the sub-plot. Sidney was cast as Master Slender, a name that aptly fitted his physique. Manners was named Caius after the famous Roman lawyer whose Institutes in the reign of Justinian came to form the legal basis for the Corpus Juris Civiles. This naming is especially apt because Manners went on to enjoy a distinguished legal career and, but for his sudden death in 1587, was on the threshold of being elected to the highest office in English law, that of Lord Chancellor. Anne Cecil retained her Christian name as Anne Page. Oxford, as one of the principal characters, adopted the name Fenton for himself. This too was apt, because in 1575, a writer, named Geoffrey Fenton, had sought permission to dedicate his book, Golden Epistles, to the former Anne Cecil. His endearing address to her left no doubt that she had won the man's heart. Her father, Lord Burghley, the most influential figure in Elizabethan politics, but a continual source of agitation in Oxford's life, was given the servile name of Page. His wife, Mildred, became Margaret, and Sidney's uncle, Lord Leicester, is identified as Shallow.

As the play develops, so the characters are given dialogue that reveals what had happened behind the scenes at Cecil House, at a time when Anne's choice of husband was at issue. It also provides one of the major reasons why the influential Cecil family were so emphatically opposed to Oxford being known as Shakespeare; they did not wish to be identified, since this would inevitably lead to their private family matters becoming a butt for lower-class ribaldry.

Sidney is approached by Leicester concerning the proposition of an arranged marriage to Anne Cecil.	Slender:	I will marry her, sir, at your request; but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married and have more occasion to know one another
Anne Cecil voices her reaction to having Philip Sidney for a husband.	Anne:	This is my father's choice. O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults Looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year!
Lady Burghley compares her husband's choice of Philip Sidney with her own preference for Edward Manners.	Mrs. Page:	That Slender, though well landed, is an idiot; And he my husband best of all affects. The Doctor is well money'd and his friends Potent at court: he, none but he, shall have her,
Anne Cecil voices her reaction to Edward Manners, her mother's choice for a husband.	Anne:	Alas, I had rather be set quick i' th' earth, And bowl'd to death with turnips!
Oxford, from one of the oldest and most noble families in England, explains to Anne why her father (a recent newcomer to the peerage) is opposed to their marriage.	Fenton:	He doth object I am too great of birth, And that my state being gall'd with my expense, I seek to heal it only by his wealth; Besides these, other bars he lays before me - My riots past, my wild societies - And tells me 'tis a thing impossible I should love thee but as a property.
	Anne:	Maybe he tells you true.
	Fenton:	No, heaven so speed me in time to come! Albeit I will confess thy father's wealth Was the first motive that I woo'd thee, Anne, Yet, wooing thee, I found thee of more value Than stamps in gold or sums in sealed bags; And 'tis the very riches of thyself That now I aim at.
Lord Burghley confirms that he will not allow any money to go Oxford's way if Anne should marry him.	Host:	What say you to young Master Fenton? He capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth; he writes verses, he speaks holiday, he smells April and May. He will carry 't ...
	Page:	Not by my consent, I promise you: he kept company with the wild Prince and Poins. He is of too high a region; he knows too much. No, he shall not knit a knot in his fortunes with the finger of my substance; if he take her let him take her simply: the wealth I have waits on my consent, and my consent goes not that way.

When Philip Sidney was being considered as the future husband for Anne Cecil, he had an income of £80 per annum. In the play, Anne Page refers to Master Slender's income as £300 per annum. The explanation for this is given as follows:

In other words, if Philip Sidney married Anne Cecil, his income would immediately rise to £346. per annum. After Leicester's death, he would then benefit from the larger sum. In all respects, the details above hold true. The description of Fenton is that of Oxford. Page's account of Fenton's crippled wealth is also true of Oxford's estate and is confirmed by Burghley's opinion of it. Edward Manners own interest in marrying Anne Cecil may be judged by the haste with which knowledge of the forthcoming marriage was conveyed to him, both by Lord St John and through Burghley's own personal letter addressed to him in Paris, where he was at the time of the engagement.

Philip Sidney and his characterization as Slender are also united in a quite different way. In 1591, the year before the writing of Merry Wives of Windsor, Sidney's sequence of Songs and Sonnets, Astrophel and Stella, was published. It was therefore topical, and is referred to twice in the play. The second time occurs when Falstaff is made to speak one of its lines.

The dating of The Merry Wives of Windsor can be derived from certain clues. In 1702, John Dennis made several changes to the play, and renamed it The Comical Gallant. In his dedication to George Granville, Dennis made this revealing statement:

That this Comedy was not despicable, I guess'd for several Reasons: First, I knew very well, that it had pleas'd one of the greatest Queens that ever was in the World, great not only for her Wisdom in the Arts of Government, but for her knowledge of Polite Learning, and her nice taste of the Drama, for such a taste we may be sure she had, by the relish which she had for the Ancients. This Comedy was written at her 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 afterwards, as Tradition tells us, very well pleas'd at the Representation.

Seven years later, in 1709, Nicholas Rowe published the first real biography of William Shakespeare in which he made a similar announcement:

In the following year, Rowe's account was supplemented by another author, Gildon, (Remarks on the Plays of Shakespeare) who added:

The speed with which Shakespeare was required to write this play would obviously account for it having been written almost entirely in prose, although he does give his own character, Fenton, blank verse to speak. The sub-plot would also have been written at speed, since it came from personal memories. This play is also the only one, the Histories excepted, that he set in England. Its location at Windsor; the extent to which the Order of the Garter is emphasized, and the inclusion of both French and Latin dialogue as well as its literary references to Doctor Faustus and Astrophel and Stella imply very strongly that it was written for a selected and well educated audience. In short, there is corroborative evidence from the text to support the assertions made by Dennis, Rowe and Gildon.

What reason may the Queen have had for commissioning the play with such haste? An obvious answer is because of the relatively sudden arrival in England, during 1592, of the future Duke von Württenberg and his entourage. They were to be guests of the Queen at Windsor. Since Elizabeth would be expected to provide suitable entertainment for the German party, a new play was deemed necessary. This gave the Queen her opportunity for asking to see Falstaff again. His creator was therefore commanded to write a new play showing this affable character in love.

The evidence offered in support of this inference is both interesting and telling. For instance, as a woman in a man's world, Elizabeth could be expected to take pleasure at seeing her major advisers squirm as they recognized themselves to be the principal characters in a court play. One can be sure that de Vere excelled at that particular. Its effect was to remind those under the Queen of their respective positions, for Elizabeth was always portrayed as the heroine in Shakespeare's plays. In The Merry Wives of Windsor there is a strong German undertone. The major source is Doctor Caius who speaks throughout with a thick German accent. For example, a German novice, speaking English, will at first pronounce 'w' as 'v' and 'th' as 'd' or 't'. Although this is obvious whenever Caius speaks, two examples may be quoted to illustrate its general truth. Firstly, Caius calls out - "Vere is dat knave ... " (I. iv 49). Secondly, upon having been invited to eat with two of the characters, Caius proudly exclaims that he will "make-a the turd." (III. iii.219). But, to prevent Caius' German accent being seen as an insult to the Queen's guests, Caius is described as a French physician, and to prove the sincerity of this description, the Doctor is given some lines of French dialogue to speak during the first Act.

At the time of the German party's arrival in 1592, Lord Howard promised to provide a special warrant enabling the visitors to obtain free post-horses. The Merry Wives of Windsor pays special attention to this free access to horses, and the corresponding misunderstanding that seems to have arisen from it.

Further evidence that the German visit of 1592 was the occasion for Shakespeare being asked to write The Merry Wives of Windsor is contained in the dialogue describing the route they took to Windsor.

Firstly, this again appears to emphasize the confusion encountered by the German party who expected free horses, and the inn-keepers en route who were unfamiliar with Lord Howard's warrant, and therefore thought their horses were being stolen. The present-day towns of Reading, Maidenhead and Colnbrook, which were only villages in Tudor times, were, in fact, visited by the German party during their trip to England in 1592.

Secondly, consider the word 'garmombles' which was previously unknown in the English language, but represents an anagrammatic pun on the Count of Mömpelgard's title by placing the last syllable first. When the German party arrived in England, the future Duke Frederick von Würtemberg had yet to become a full duke, and was still officially the Count of Mömpelgard. In the play, this fact is acknowledged with good humour when Caius exclaims: " ... tell-a me dat you make a grand preparation for a Duke de Jamanie: by my trot, dere is no Duke that the court is know to come." (IV. v. 81).

Tom Nashe, whom it has been inferred was present at the first performance of this play, picked on this new word 'garmomble' and reproduced it in his pamphlet, Strange News, (January 1593) using it as a term of abuse against Gabriel Harvey, " [that] ... fanaticall Phobetor, geremomble ...".

In essence, the historical facts that are discernable from within the Quarto and Folio texts of The Merry Wives of Windsor efficiently complement Nashe's reference to Master Apis Lapis; thereby confirming that he had seen the play in 1592, and that it had been written by the the man he was paying tribute to - Edward de Vere.

In 1911, well before it was discovered that Edward de Vere possessed all the right attributes to have been the authorial brains behind Shakespeare, Edward Dowden, a literary scholar who examined The Merry Wives of Windsor in a detached manner described the play as:

A prevailingly tedious comedy-farce relying for its humour mostly on slapstick, strained puns, and Welsh and French accents, it cannot conceivably have been written at the height of the dramatist's powers in 1598, as even intelligent orthodox writers have it. The final touches must have been given to the play in 1592 or very shortly thereafter. In that year Count Mümpelgart, the prospective Duke of Württemberg, came to London, and the event lent itself to a comic interpolation about 'cosen-germans' and 'garmombles' that depended for its punch on the author's being up-to-the-minute, like a stand-up comedian today; dragged in years later it would have fallen flat.
('Introductory Studies of the Several Plays', in Comedies, Tragedies and Histories and Poems of Shakespeare. 3 vols.

In this present age, literary scholarship that begins with the Principle of Cartesian Doubt, particularly when applied to dating Shakespeare's plays, died long ago. In its place the modern student is inculcated with allegiance to an unproven premise, upon which vast fortunes have been spent to shore up the reputations of its defenders, and help create new ones for the future. This unproven premise must be defended with vigour, and any excuse made to cover its inadequacies, however pitiful, even illogical, will find easy acceptance in the world of letters if it contributes to the faith. Doubt is the enemy, and all voices of dissent, however, logical or truthful are to be ignored, dismissed, censored or just ridiculed.

Slender:	I had rather than forty shillings I had my book of Songs and Sonnets here.
Falstaff:	Have I caught thee, my heavenly jewel?

Bardolph:	Sir, the German desires to have three of your horses: the Duke himself will be tomorrow at court, and they are going to meet him.
Host:	They shall have my horses, but I'll make them pay; I'll sauce them.

Host:	Where be my horses? Speak well of them, varletto.
Bardolph:	Run away with the cozeners: for so soon as I came beyond Eton, they threw me off, from behind one of them, in a slough of mire; and set spurs and away, like three German devils, three Doctor Faustuses.
Host:	They are gone but to meet the Duke, villain; do not say they be fled. Germans are honest men.