Merry Wives: Numbers (three years later…)

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Here we are, three years after the fact… getting ready to re-start the blog, and I feel the need to upgrade the coverage of the last play we discussed (which got a bit of the short shrift, sad to say)…

So here’s the numerical breakdown (with a little more commentary to follow in the next month before we get going again with As You Like It)…

  • 2769 total lines; longer than average (average play: 2777; average comedy: 2425)
  • At 12, 11, and 4 lines, respectively, Act One, Scene Two, Act Four, Scene Three, and Act Five, Scene Four are the shortest of their kind in the Canon
  • No scene is the longest of its kinds in the Canon
  • Act One: 557 lines; shorter than average play, longer than the average comedy (average play: 582, average comedy: 488)
  • Act Two: 598 lines; longer than the average (average play: 567, average comedy: 495)
  • Act Three: 661 lines; MUCH longer than average (average play: 576, average comedy: 511)
  • Act Four: 557 lines; longer than average (average play: 560, average comedy: 460)
  • Act Five: 306 lines; MUCH shorter than average (average play: 484, average comedy: 471)
  • 2363 lines of prose (88.20% of total lines [as opposed to The Comedy of Errors: 13.31%, Titus Andronicus: 1.39%, The Taming of the Shrew: 20.82%, 1HenryVI: 0.37%, 2HenryVI: 16.64%, 3HenryVI: 0.14%, Richard III: 2.89%, Love’s Labor’s Lost: 35.08%, The Two Gentlemen of Verona: 26.81%, A Midsummer Night’s Dream: 19.75%, Romeo and Juliet: 14.18%, King John: 0.0%, The Merchant of Venice: 21.79%, Richard II: 0%, 1HenryIV: 44.7%, 2HenryIV: 50.36%, and HenryV: 40.89%])
  • 100 rhyming lines (3.79% of total lines [as opposed to Comedy: 20.10%, Titus: 2.42%, Taming: 3.93%, 1HenryVI: 9.79%, 2HenryVI: 3.16%, 3HenryVI: 5.37%, Richard III: 7.55%, LLL: 40.86%, 2Gents: 35.08%, Midsummer: 43.5%, Romeo: 16.61%, King John: 6.19%, Merchant: 5.16%, Richard II: 18.95%, 1HenryIV: 1.04%, 2HenryIV: 2.32%, and HenryV: 1.80%])
  • 23 scenes; more than average (average play: 21; average comedy: 16)
  • 24 characters; less than average, about average for a comedy (average play: 36, average comedy: 22)