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- Introduction 13
it may not amount to such evidence as might be de-
manded toestablish some contested point of rehgious
or legal or political opinion."
The date that I have assigned to the play (1599)
places it between 2 Henry IV. and Henry V. That it
was written after 2 Henry IV. is evident from the fact
that Falstaff in that play was originally called Old-
castle, but not in this one. It has been urged that it
must have been produced before Henry V. in which
Falstaff's death is recorded; but it is not necessary to
regard the Merry Wives as an integral part of the his-
torical trilogy. If it was written at the request of
Elizabeth, the dramatist would not have hesitated to
resuscitate the knight for her gratification. It is more
probable, however, that if, as Row^e asserts, it was her
enjoyment of the two parts of Henry IV. that led her
to *' command " him to write a play showing Falstaff
in love, and if she insisted on its being finished in a
fortnight, the dramatist would have postponed the com-
pletion ofthe trilogy in order to do it.
The Sources of the Plot
Among the sources from which it has been supposed
that Shakespeare may have got some hints for the plot
of the Merry Wives are two tales in Straparola's Le
Tredici Piacevoli Notte, and a modified version of one
of these, under the title of " The Lovers of Pisa " in
Tarleton's Newes out of Furgatorie, 1590; the tale of
Bucciolo and Pietro Paulo in the Pecorone of Giovanni
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