First Quarto of 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'

The First Quarto of The Merry Wives of Windsor is the most fascinatingly problematic of all the early Shakespearean texts. Was it an authorial first draft? Or a cut-down version of the better-known Folio text designed for acting? Or a text put together from faulty actors'' memories? Or a reported text assembled by notetakers from attendance at the theatre? None of these theories, though advanced a...