‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ as a Hallowe’en Play

Summary

In trying to define the mood and the artistic movement of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, it is provocative to imagine what the season of the setting ought to be. Since much of the action takes place out of doors, the season is important to the realist; and if any symbolic or ritual progress is to be discerned, the season is significant in establishing the tone and in possibly indicating the occasion.

The text of the play itself is not very helpful. 'Birding' is a sport which can be indulged in at any season; and laundry might conceivably be sent to the Thames any time, though certainly spring, summer, and fall are more likely than winter. The reference by Simple (i, i, 211)1 to the use of a Book of Riddles on 'Allhallowmas last' is interesting but inconclusive. And Mistress Page's reference to the fact that Herne the hunter wanders in the winter forest (i, iv, 30) does not necessarily set the season for the current action.

Traditionally The Merry Wives has been thought of as a summer play. William Mark Clark, for example, in 1835 spoke lyrically of the 'sylvan splendour of its enchanting scenes' with special reference to Herne's Oak, immortalized 'fresh and green' for succeeding generations. Charles Cowden Clarke in 1863 refers similarly to the visions conjured up in the play of 'leafy nooks' on the Thames, with 'barges lapsing on its tranquil tide'. John Middleton Murry finds the play' redolent of early summer', with 'the air . . . full of May or June'.