JONATHAN BATE Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, University of Warwick, UK, and the editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He has held visiting posts at Harvard, Yale and UCLA and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine's College, Cambridge, and a Governor and Board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. A prominent critic, award-winning biographer and broadcaster, he is the author of several books on Shakespeare, including The Genius of Shakespeare (Picador), which was praised by Sir Peter Hall, founder of the RSC, as "the best modern book on Shakespeare." In June 2006 he was awarded a CBE by HM The Queen 'for services to Higher Education'.

ERIC RASMUSSEN is Professor of English at the University of Nevada, USA, and the Textual Editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He is co-editor of the Norton Anthology of English Renaissance Drama and has edited volumes in both the Arden Shakespeare and Oxford World's Classics series. He is the General Textual Editor of the Internet Shakespeare Editions project - one of the most visited Shakespeare websites in the world. For over nine years he has written the annual review of editions and textual studies for the Shakespeare Survey.

The first edition of The Merry Wives of Windsor, developed by and for the RSC, with unique material including a new introduction from Jonathan Bate and interviews with two directors and an actor.

Introduction
About the Text
Key Facts
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Textual Notes
Scene-by-Scene Analysis
The Merry Wives of Windso in Performance: The RSC and Beyond
Four Centuries of The Merry Wives of Windsor: An Overview
At the RSC
The Director's Cut: interviews with Dominic Cooke and Emma Rice
Shakespeare's Career in the Theatre
Shakespeare's Works: A Chronology
Further Reading and Viewing
References
Acknowledgements and Picture Credits