The Merry Wives of Windsor and Elizabeth I: The Welsh Connection

Abstract

We all understand how scholarship is a building process. As critics and scholars in later days analyze and critique, they usually borrow from earlier critics and scholars. Ideas previously proposed are expanded and extrapolated and qualified; however, this process can be as debilitating as it can be rewarding. Take the case of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor and, in particular, the character of Sir Hugh Evans. Because of the general harsh critical treatment this play has received, what may be a vital link between the English court and the play has been overlooked, its characters dismissed as shallow (pun intended).¹ I believe that two gentlemen, John Dennys and William Hazlitt, are largely responsible for the overall lack of scholarship and analysis of The Merry Wives of Windsor. Through both men’s works, the process of criticism and discussion about this play has been delimited even to the present day.