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Mr. William Shakespeare presents
"The merry wives of Windsor"
to the third grade A
(Solfanelli - Chieti)
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The castle of Windsor
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The Merry Wives of Windsor is Shakespeare’s funniest comedy and the only play set in a small English town of his time. |
The story is certainly an adaptation for young people in which an imaginary William Shakespeare presents his comedy to the students of a modern school. Behind the curtain of an often irresistible and corrosive comedy, Shakespeare draws a surprising collage of humor and sarcasm and takes merciless photographs of a vain, arrogant bourgeoisie, thirsty for easy gains, always ready for intrigue, often foul-mouthed, naturally inclined to deception and social climbing at any cost.
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William Shakespeare
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Friedrich Engels
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It is no coincidence that the philosopher Frederick Engels wrote in a letter to his friend Karl Marx that "there is more life and reality in the first act of The Merry Wives alone than in all of German literature".
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It is said that it was Queen Elizabeth I herself, fascinated by the character of Falstaff seen in the two parts of Henry IV, who commissioned the comedy to Shakespeare who composed it in just fifteen days.
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Elizabeth I - portrait attributed to William Segar in 1585
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Singer Lucien Fugère as Falstaff
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Over the centuries, comedy has always received applause from the public, but not always equally convinced by critics. Today it surprises for the topicality of the themes: feminism, gender roles, parental relationships. Even in the history of time, Shakespeare is a step ahead.
“Falstaff is one of the greatest comic figures in the history of literature.”
Harold Clarke Goddard
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