CHICAGO—There are critics and Shakespearean scholars—including Harold Bloom (“Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human”), A.C. Bradley (“Oxford Lectures on Poetry”), Samuel Johnson (“Preface to Shakespeare”), and Bertrand Evans (“Shakespeare’s Comedies”)—who argue that William Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” is not as funny as his other comedies. But the revival of “Merry Wives” at Chicago Shakespeare Theater is so lively and inventive that it challenges their opinions.
A long-standing rumor holds that Queen Elizabeth I commissioned Shakespeare to write a play showing Falstaff in love. The rumor originated with playwright and critic John Dennis, who wrote in 1702 that the queen was amused by Falstaff in “Henry IV,” in both Parts I and II, and asked Shakespeare to revive the character in a new play. Nicholas Rowe later popularized the account in his 1709 biography of Shakespeare, claiming the queen was eager to see the corpulent buffoon in love.
