quotes, notes, timelines & more

Home » Shakespeare's Works » Merry Wives of Windsor

Merry Wives of Windsor

Written: c. 1597-98; Texts: Quarto 1602, First Folio 1623 (Comedy)
Source: Perhaps: Fiorentino, Ser Giovanni Il Pecorone (The Simpleton) (1558); Ovid (43 BC- AD18). Metamorphoses (Arthur Golding's English translation in 1567); Lyly, John (c.1554-1606). Endimion (1588)
Characters: Mistress Margaret Page, Sir John Falstaff, Mistress Quickly, Francis Ford, Sir Hugh Evans, George Page, Mistress Alice Ford, Fenton
Setting: Windsor
Time: c. 1590

Xxx xxx

Sir Hugh, persuade me not

Read the Quote

Shallow
Sir Hugh, persuade me not. I will make a
Star-Chamber matter of it. If he were twenty Sir
John Falstaffs, he shall not abuse Robert Shallow, Esquire.
Slender
In the county of Gloucester, Justice of Peace
and Coram.

Shall I tell you a lie? I do despise a liar as I
do despise one that is false,
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 1
Line 1

Source Type:

Spoken by:
, , ,

Better three hours too soon than a minute too late

Read the Quote

Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.
… continue reading this quote

Act 2
Scene 2

Source Type:

Spoken by:

Yonder is a most reverend gentleman

Read the Quote

Page
Yonder is a most reverend gentleman who, belike
having received wrong by some person, is at
most odds with his own gravity and patience that
ever you saw.
Shallow
I have lived fourscore years and upward. I never
heard a man of his place, gravity, and learning
so wide of his own respect.
… continue reading this quote

Act 3
Scene 1
Line 52

Source Type:

Spoken by:
, , , , ,

With trial-fire touch me his finger-end

Read the Quote

Mistress Quickly, as Fairy Queen, to Sir Hugh
With trial-fire touch me his finger-end.
If he be chaste, the flame will back descend
And turn him to no pain. But if he start,
It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.
Pistol, as Hobgoblin
A trial, come!
Sir Hugh,
… continue reading this quote

Act 5
Scene 5
Line 89

Source Type:
,

Spoken by:

Themes:
,