# The Merry Wives of Windsor: every role by lines, words, and stage time > William Shakespeare. 23 speaking roles, 21,778 words, about 156 minutes of speech. - URL: https://www.offbook.com/plays/the-merry-wives-of-windsor - Last updated: 2026-10-08 **Falstaff** has the most to say in The Merry Wives of Windsor: about 438 lines and 3,772 words, 17.3% of the play. The Merry Wives of Windsor follows Falstaff as he woos two married women, Mistress Page and Mistress Ford, who turn his schemes against him. Falstaff is the largest part, at about 17%, but this is an ensemble play: the next four roles each hold about 8% to 12%. Mistress Page has nearly twice the words of Mistress Ford and almost exactly as many as Ford. - Speaking roles: 23 - Scenes: 23 - Words: 21,778 - Speech time: 156 min ## Every role, largest first | Role | Lines | Words | Share | Minutes | Scenes | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Falstaff | 438 | 3,772 | 17.3% | 26.9 | 9 | | Mistress Page | 316 | 2,572 | 11.8% | 18.4 | 9 | | Ford | 301 | 2,557 | 11.7% | 18.3 | 9 | | [Mistress Quickly](https://www.offbook.com/plays/the-merry-wives-of-windsor/mistress-quickly) | 251 | 2,122 | 9.7% | 15.2 | 9 | | Sir Hugh Evans | 221 | 1,827 | 8.4% | 13.1 | 10 | | Mistress Ford | 179 | 1,394 | 6.4% | 10.0 | 6 | | Slender | 144 | 1,188 | 5.5% | 8.5 | 7 | | Page | 150 | 1,162 | 5.3% | 8.3 | 11 | | Justice Shallow | 122 | 949 | 4.4% | 6.8 | 8 | | Host | 104 | 859 | 3.9% | 6.1 | 8 | | Doctor Caius | 111 | 857 | 3.9% | 6.1 | 8 | | Fenton | 97 | 762 | 3.5% | 5.4 | 4 | | Pistol | 59 | 416 | 1.9% | 3.0 | 5 | | Simple | 45 | 335 | 1.5% | 2.4 | 5 | | Nym | 31 | 259 | 1.2% | 1.9 | 3 | | Anne Page | 37 | 256 | 1.2% | 1.8 | 3 | | Bardolph | 25 | 183 | 0.8% | 1.3 | 6 | | Robin | 13 | 100 | 0.5% | 0.7 | 3 | | Rugby | 11 | 61 | 0.3% | 0.4 | 2 | | William | 12 | 40 | 0.2% | 0.3 | 1 | | First Servant | 3 | 20 | 0.1% | 0.1 | 1 | | Second Servant | 1 | 9 | 0% | 0.1 | 1 | | Servant | 1 | 4 | 0% | 0.0 | 1 | ## Who speaks in which scene Words each role speaks in each scene (scene: words). Scenes: 1.1 = Act 1, Scene 1; 1.2 = Act 1, Scene 2; 1.3 = Act 1, Scene 3; 1.4 = Act 1, Scene 4; 2.1 = Act 2, Scene 1; 2.2 = Act 2, Scene 2; 2.3 = Act 2, Scene 3; 3.1 = Act 3, Scene 1; 3.2 = Act 3, Scene 2; 3.3 = Act 3, Scene 3; 3.4 = Act 3, Scene 4; 3.5 = Act 3, Scene 5; 4.1 = Act 4, Scene 1; 4.2 = Act 4, Scene 2; 4.3 = Act 4, Scene 3; 4.4 = Act 4, Scene 4; 4.5 = Act 4, Scene 5; 4.6 = Act 4, Scene 6; 5.1 = Act 5, Scene 1; 5.2 = Act 5, Scene 2; 5.3 = Act 5, Scene 3; 5.4 = Act 5, Scene 4; 5.5 = Act 5, Scene 5. - **Falstaff**: 1.1 (102), 1.3 (406), 2.2 (839), 3.3 (314), 3.5 (846), 4.2 (98), 4.5 (334), 5.1 (236), 5.5 (597) - **Mistress Page**: 2.1 (625), 3.2 (120), 3.3 (432), 3.4 (75), 4.1 (111), 4.2 (550), 4.4 (333), 5.3 (142), 5.5 (184) - **Ford**: 2.1 (241), 2.2 (915), 3.2 (297), 3.3 (216), 3.5 (209), 4.2 (390), 4.4 (60), 5.1 (14), 5.5 (215) - **Mistress Quickly**: 1.4 (770), 2.1 (10), 2.2 (661), 3.4 (167), 3.5 (105), 4.1 (115), 4.5 (87), 5.1 (18), 5.5 (189) - **Sir Hugh Evans**: 1.1 (639), 1.2 (100), 3.1 (366), 3.3 (93), 4.1 (200), 4.2 (72), 4.4 (89), 4.5 (69), 5.4 (33), 5.5 (166) - **Mistress Ford**: 2.1 (328), 3.3 (494), 4.2 (410), 4.4 (61), 5.3 (34), 5.5 (67) - **Slender**: 1.1 (775), 2.3 (5), 3.1 (12), 3.2 (36), 3.4 (183), 5.2 (36), 5.5 (141) - **Page**: 1.1 (147), 2.1 (187), 2.3 (29), 3.1 (103), 3.2 (91), 3.3 (90), 3.4 (59), 4.2 (44), 4.4 (191), 5.2 (54), 5.5 (167) - **Justice Shallow**: 1.1 (399), 2.1 (148), 2.3 (144), 3.1 (98), 3.2 (40), 3.4 (76), 4.2 (20), 5.2 (24) - **Host**: 1.3 (60), 2.1 (68), 2.3 (224), 3.1 (147), 3.2 (55), 4.3 (62), 4.5 (187), 4.6 (56) - **Doctor Caius**: 1.4 (353), 2.3 (234), 3.1 (94), 3.2 (22), 3.3 (51), 4.5 (48), 5.3 (8), 5.5 (47) - **Fenton**: 1.4 (73), 3.4 (219), 4.6 (385), 5.5 (85) ## The longest speeches | Speech | Scene | Words | Lines | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Fenton: “From time to time I have acquainted you” | Act 4, Scene 6 | 303 | 38 | | Falstaff: “Nay, you shall hear, Master Brook, what I have suffered to bring this woman to evil for your good. Being thus crammed in the basket, a couple of Ford’s knaves, his hinds, were called forth by their mistress to carry me in the name of foul clothes to Datchet-lane; they took me on their shoulders; met the jealous knave their master in the door; who asked them once or twice what they had in their basket. I quaked for fear lest the lunatic knave would have searched it; but Fate, ordaining he should be a cuckold, held his hand. Well, on went he for a search, and away went I for foul clothes. But mark the sequel, Master Brook: I suffered the pangs of three several deaths: first, an intolerable fright to be detected with a jealous rotten bellwether; next, to be compassed like a good bilbo in the circumference of a peck, hilt to point, heel to head; and then, to be stopped in, like a strong distillation, with stinking clothes that fretted in their own grease: think of that; a man of my kidney, think of that, that am as subject to heat as butter; a man of continual dissolution and thaw: it was a miracle to ’scape suffocation. And in the height of this bath, when I was more than half stewed in grease, like a Dutch dish, to be thrown into the Thames, and cooled, glowing hot, in that surge, like a horseshoe; think of that, hissing hot, think of that, Master Brook!” | Act 3, Scene 5 | 257 | 26 | | Mistress Page: “What! have I ’scaped love-letters in the holiday-time of my beauty, and am I now a subject for them? Let me see. She reads.” | Act 2, Scene 1 | 256 | 30 | | Ford: “What a damned Epicurean rascal is this! My heart is ready to crack with impatience. Who says this is improvident jealousy? My wife hath sent to him; the hour is fixed; the match is made. Would any man have thought this? See the hell of having a false woman! My bed shall be abused, my coffers ransacked, my reputation gnawn at; and I shall not only receive this villainous wrong, but stand under the adoption of abominable terms, and by him that does me this wrong. Terms! names! Amaimon sounds well; Lucifer, well; Barbason, well; yet they are devils’ additions, the names of fiends. But Cuckold! Wittol!—Cuckold! the devil himself hath not such a name. Page is an ass, a secure ass; he will trust his wife; he will not be jealous; I will rather trust a Fleming with my butter, Parson Hugh the Welshman with my cheese, an Irishman with my aqua-vitae bottle, or a thief to walk my ambling gelding, than my wife with herself; then she plots, then she ruminates, then she devises; and what they think in their hearts they may effect, they will break their hearts but they will effect. God be praised for my jealousy! Eleven o’clock the hour. I will prevent this, detect my wife, be revenged on Falstaff, and laugh at Page. I will about it; better three hours too soon than a minute too late. Fie, fie, fie! cuckold! cuckold! cuckold!” | Act 2, Scene 2 | 241 | 25 | | Mistress Quickly: “Marry, this is the short and the long of it. You have brought her into such a canaries as ’tis wonderful: the best courtier of them all, when the court lay at Windsor, could never have brought her to such a canary; yet there has been knights, and lords, and gentlemen, with their coaches; I warrant you, coach after coach, letter after letter, gift after gift; smelling so sweetly—all musk, and so rushling, I warrant you, in silk and gold; and in such alligant terms; and in such wine and sugar of the best and the fairest, that would have won any woman’s heart; and I warrant you, they could never get an eye-wink of her. I had myself twenty angels given me this morning; but I defy all angels, in any such sort, as they say, but in the way of honesty: and, I warrant you, they could never get her so much as sip on a cup with the proudest of them all; and yet there has been earls, nay, which is more, pensioners; but, I warrant you, all is one with her.” | Act 2, Scene 2 | 186 | 19 | | Ford: “Has Page any brains? Hath he any eyes? Hath he any thinking? Sure, they sleep; he hath no use of them. Why, this boy will carry a letter twenty mile as easy as a cannon will shoot point-blank twelve score. He pieces out his wife’s inclination; he gives her folly motion and advantage; and now she’s going to my wife, and Falstaff’s boy with her. A man may hear this shower sing in the wind: and Falstaff’s boy with her! Good plots! They are laid; and our revolted wives share damnation together. Well; I will take him, then torture my wife, pluck the borrowed veil of modesty from the so seeming Mistress Page, divulge Page himself for a secure and wilful Actaeon; and to these violent proceedings all my neighbours shall cry aim. The clock gives me my cue, and my assurance bids me search; there I shall find Falstaff. I shall be rather praised for this than mocked; for it is as positive as the earth is firm that Falstaff is there. I will go.” | Act 3, Scene 2 | 176 | 18 | | Falstaff: “I went to her, Master Brook, as you see, like a poor old man; but I came from her, Master Brook, like a poor old woman. That same knave Ford, her husband, hath the finest mad devil of jealousy in him, Master Brook, that ever governed frenzy. I will tell you: he beat me grievously in the shape of a woman; for in the shape of man, Master Brook, I fear not Goliath with a weaver’s beam, because I know also life is a shuttle. I am in haste; go along with me; I’ll tell you all, Master Brook. Donning his coat. Since I plucked geese, played truant, and whipped top, I knew not what ’twas to be beaten till lately. At the door. Follow me: I’ll tell you strange things of this knave Ford, on whom tonight I will be revenged, and I will deliver his wife into your hand. Follow. Strange things in hand, Master Brook! Follow.” | Act 5, Scene 1 | 159 | 16 | | Mistress Quickly: “About, about!” | Act 5, Scene 5 | 157 | 22 | | Falstaff: “Go fetch me a quart of sack; put a toast in’t.” | Act 3, Scene 5 | 155 | 16 | | Falstaff: “The Windsor bell hath struck twelve; the minute draws on. Now the hot-blooded gods assist me! Remember, Jove, thou wast a bull for thy Europa; love set on thy horns. O powerful love! that in some respects, makes a beast a man; in some other a man a beast. You were also, Jupiter, a swan, for the love of Leda. O omnipotent love! how near the god drew to the complexion of a goose! A fault done first in the form of a beast; O Jove, a beastly fault! and then another fault in the semblance of a fowl: think on’t, Jove, a foul fault! When gods have hot backs what shall poor men do? For me, I am here a Windsor stag; and the fattest, I think, i’ the forest. Send me a cool rut-time, Jove, or who can blame me to piss my tallow? Who comes here? my doe?” | Act 5, Scene 5 | 151 | 16 | ## Small roles that can be doubled These pairs of small roles never speak in the same scene, so one actor could play both. Check entrances and silent appearances in your script before you cast it this way. - Justice Shallow and William - Justice Shallow and Servant - Host and Anne Page - Host and William - Host and First Servant - Host and Second Servant - Host and Servant - Doctor Caius and Nym - Doctor Caius and William - Doctor Caius and First Servant - Doctor Caius and Second Servant - Fenton and Nym ## Roles and monologues in depth - [How many lines does Mistress Quickly have?](https://www.offbook.com/plays/the-merry-wives-of-windsor/mistress-quickly) ## Questions actors ask ### Who has the most lines in The Merry Wives of Windsor? Falstaff, with about 438 lines and 3,772 words, 17.3% of everything spoken in the play. Mistress Page is next, with about 316 lines (11.8%). ### How long is The Merry Wives of Windsor? The full text has 21,778 spoken words, about 156 minutes at 140 words a minute before pauses, scene changes, and cuts. Most productions cut the text, so running times vary. ### How many speaking roles are in The Merry Wives of Windsor? 23 named roles speak in this edition, across 23 scenes. 11 of them have less than 2% of the words, which is why small parts are often doubled. ## How we count Counts are computed from the full text of the [Standard Ebooks edition](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/william-shakespeare/the-merry-wives-of-windsor) (public domain; retrieved 2026-10-08). Words are every spoken word, with stage directions removed. Lines are verse lines as printed, plus prose at 10 words a line, because prose has no fixed line breaks; editions differ, so other sources give slightly different line counts. Time is words at 140 words a minute, before pauses and stage business. A role is counted in a scene when it speaks there. To count a script that is not in the library, paste it into the [script line counter](https://www.offbook.com/tools/script-line-counter).