The Merry Wives of Windsor offers strong evidence that Shakespeare was not its author

Relentless in his self-satire … Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Photograph: Alamy

Michael Billington says Shakespeare’s romantic comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor offers clues to the Bard’s identity (Need proof who wrote Shakespeare’s plays? See The Merry Wives of Windsor, 20 May). “It could only have been written by someone who understood the intricacies of a close-knit, provincial community,” Billington writes.

We wholeheartedly agree. The action in Merry Wives centres on an inn in Windsor, the only town in England with a whole Shakespeare play devoted to it. Local geography and lore are faithfully reported, including accurate references to the nearby village of Frogmore, the laundry place at Datchet Mead and Windsor Castle’s Great Park.