D6. Shakespeare's Uppity Women: The Merry Wives of Windsor & Much Ado About Nothing

This course will study Shakespeare’s most unusual comic heroines: the clamoring Mistress Page and Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor and acerbic Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. Usually, Shakespeare’s comic women say their piece while disguised as young men. These women defy that convention in ways that transform our sense of “romantic comedy.” Those who wish to will reassemble for a post-performance discussion of Much Ado performed by the Hanover Theatre Repertory Co.

Required Readings:

The Merry Wives of Windsor, Folger edition (free online or buy the paperback)

Instructors: Helen Whall joined the faculty at The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA after finishing her Ph.D. at Yale University. At Holy Cross, she taught Shakespeare and Renaissance drama as well as modern drama, frequently writing on all three subjects. Since retiring in 2017, Helen has offered several courses for WISE on Shakespeare, modern drama, and the modern mystery novel.

Virginia Mason Vaughan taught at Clark University for thirty-seven years, and since retirement, she has taught classes on Shakespeare at WISE, often with her good friend Helen Whall. She is widely published, including books on The Tempest and Othello. She also co-edited with her late husband Alden T. Vaughan, The Tempest (Third Arden Series) and co-authored with him Shakespeare in America (Oxford Shakespeare Topics). Her most recent book is Shakespeare and the Gods (2019), from Arden Shakespeare. She currently serves as Senior Editor for the digital resource, The Literary Encyclopedia.