The picture reproduced above captures an idea of Shakespeare, romantically standing on the royal barge, reciting to Queen Elizabeth I the text of ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ – the play tradition held she had asked him to write – showing Sir John Falstaff in love.
The original watercolour from which this postcard was reproduced was one of 13 painted by the Victorian artist Charles Cattermole (1832-1900), the nephew of the well-known book illustrator George Cattermole (1800-1868) – one of illustrators of Dickens. Cattermole was one of new generation of Victorian painters of historical subjects, emphasising a chivalric and romanticised vision of British history.
The 13 pictures were illustrations of romantically imagined scenes from the life of Shakespeare. Beginning with Shakespeare’s Christening and ending with Shakespeare’s Last Hours. The Merry Wives of Windsor picture was number 10 in the series. They were commissioned by William Roland to accompany a lecture on Shakespeare’s life and were bequeathed to the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1901, to be much reproduced thereafter.
An imagined vision of Shakespeare’s life…
The Solitary Reader 