Productions of The Merry Wives of Windsor:

1890. The Merry Wives of Windsor. Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree's production with Tree playing the part of Sir John Falstaff opened at the Haymarket Theatre (London) on February 5, 1890, and ran until February 25, 1890. The principal players were James Fernandez as Mr. Ford, C. H. E. Brookfield as Master Slender, Henry Kemble as Dr. Caius, Lingard as Mistress Ford, Rose Leclercq as Mistress Page, Gurney as Mr. Page, and Mrs. H. B. Tree as Anne Page (Wearing, 1890-99, I, 8).

1900. Frank Benson's troupe performed The Merry Wives of Windsor 11 times (December 19-31) at the Comedy Theatre (London). George R. Weir played Falstaff; the other players were Oscar Asche as Pistol, F. R. Benson as Dr. Caius, Constance Benson as Mistress Ford, Frank Rodney as Ford, and Lilian Braithwaite as Anne Page (Wearing, 1900-09, I, 66-7).

1902. Beerbohm Tree played Sir John Falstaff in his company's presentation of The Merry Wives of Windsor; the play ran for 56 performances, June through August. Oscar Asche played Master Ford, with Mrs. W. H. Kendal as Mistress Ford and Ellen Terry as Mistress Page (Wearing, 1901-9, I, 167).

1903. Frank Benson opened a two-week Shakespeare Festival season at Stratford-upon-Avon on April 20. Among the plays his troupe presented were Hamlet, The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Loney, I, 16).

1909. The London Shakespeare Festival presented by Herbert Beerbohm Tree's ensemble, began June 21 at His Majesty's Theatre, London. The festival ran for two weeks with The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Richard III, The Merchant of Venice, and Macbeth (Loney, I.50).

1910. Beginning on March 28, several companies presented a London Shakespeare Festival at His Majesty's Theatre. Herbert Beerbohm Tree's company played The Merry Wives of Windsor, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, and Hamlet. Norman Mckinnel presented King Lear and The Merchant of Venice; Arthur Bourchier and his company came next with The Merchant of Venice. H. B. Irving played Hamlet, and Frank Benson's "Bensonians" followed with the Taming of the Shrew and Coriolanus. Poel's Elizabethan Stage Society gave a performance--in the "original" sixteenth-century style--of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Lewis Waller revived his Henry V, and Tree returned to close the Festival with The Merchant of Venice and Richard II (Loney, I, 54).

1910. At the first Stratford-upon-Avon Summer Shakespeare Festival, Benson presented The Winter's Tale, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Henry V, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Richard II, Hamlet, and The Merry Wives of Windsor (Loney, I, 54).

1911. On February 25 Oscar Asche and Lily Brayton opened their London season at the Garrick Theatre with The Merry Wives of Windsor (Loney, I, 158).

1911. On April 17 the annual Stratford Shakespeare Festival opened with The Merry Wives of Windsor. This year Frank Benson also offered The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Richard III (Loney, I, 158).

1911. The London Shakespeare Festival opened on May 22 at His Majesty's Theatre with Herbert Beerbohm Tree's Julius Caesar, followed by Oscar Asche and Lily Brayton's As You Like It. Next came The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night. Frank Benson presented The Taming of the Shrew, Tree revived his Henry VIII, and the Festival closed with Benson's Richard III and on July 3, the final night, the Merry Wives of Windsor (Loney, I, 158).

1912. The third annual summer season of Shakespeare began on August 7 at Stratford. The Shakespeare plays performed by Frank Benson's troupe included Othello, Henry V, Antony and Cleopatra, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Merry Wives of Windsor (Loney, I, 64).

1913. Frank Benson's summer season of Shakespeare's plays opened on August 2 with The Merchant of Venice; other plays performed that season were As You Like It, Hamlet, King John, Richard II, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, and Henry IV, Part 2 (Loney, I, 68).

1914. Frank Benson returned from the United States to direct the Stratford Summer Festival. He opened the four-week festval with Much Ado About Nothing. The company also presented Hamlet, Richard II, Henry IV, Part 2, Henry V, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, and Romeo and Juliet (Loney, I, 73).

1914. On October 5, the Old Vic Theatre, London, under the management of Lilian Baylis, mounted a production of The Taming of the Shrew. Additionally, the following plays were performed for the first time in 1914 at the Old Vic: Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Baylis will by 1923 have produced the entire Shakespeare canon of thirty-seven plays (Loney, I, 73).