In one sense, Shakespeare’s circa-1597 love farce about duped seducers and wooers is a very modern product. It is a rapid sequel to a popular hit, even featuring, in the style of Superman and Harry Potter, the name of the marquee hero in the title: it was initially performed as Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor, granting a franchise to the obese, beery, leering knight previously seen as the mentor to Henry V.
However, in another aspect, The Merry Wives of Windsor, as it now identifies, chafes against contemporary sensitivities. The main sources of comedy are fat-shaming – whether Sir John’s belly, dimensions and contents widely analysed, will fit confined spaces – and the failure of foreigners to speak and act as the Queen’s subjects did, especially the Welsh and French, nations each represented by a gross caricature. Oh, and just how many words can make an English audience see penises or vaginas.
