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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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The Merry Wives of Windsor
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(c.1600) Comedy by *Shakespeare, written in response to the great success of the character of Falstaff in *Henry IV. The plot centres on Falstaff's plan to secure funds by seducing two rich wives of Windsor, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. Rumbling his scheme (they have received identical love letters), they subject him to a series of humiliations. In the last he is persuaded to dress as Herne the Hunter, a horned spectre haunting Windsor Park, in the hope of an assignation beneath an oak tree. There he is cruelly pinched by young fairies dressed up by Mistress Page for the occasion.
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