The Merry Wives of Windsor: 2,615 Lines, 25 Characters, Act-by-Act Breakdown

The Merry Wives of Windsor (c. 1601) is a comedy with 2,615 lines of dialogue distributed across 5 acts and 23 scenes. 25 named characters speak at least once; the top five voices account for 58% of the play. Dialogue splits 83% male and 17% female.

The play opens (Act 1, Scene 1) with Shallow: “Sir Hugh, persuade me not; I will make a Star-”

The play closes (Act 5, Scene 5) with Ford: “For he tonight shall lie with Mistress Ford.”

Full cast of The Merry Wives of Windsor by line count

#	Character	Lines	Share	Acts
1	Falstaff ♂	433	16.6%	5
2	Mistress Page ♂	306	11.7%	4
3	Ford ♂	305	11.7%	4
4	Mistress Quickly ♀	262	10.0%	5
5	Sir Hugh Evans ♂	222	8.5%	4
6	Mistress Ford ♀	167	6.4%	4
7	Page ♂	144	5.5%	5
8	Slender ♂	141	5.4%	4
9	Shallow ♂	114	4.4%	5
10	Host ♂	107	4.1%	4
11	Fenton ♂	94	3.6%	4
12	Doctor Caius ♂	94	3.6%	5
13	Pistol ♂	57	2.2%	3
14	Simple ♂	49	1.9%	3
15	Nym ♂	28	1.1%	2
16	Anne Page ♀	28	1.1%	3
17	Bardolph ♂	23	0.9%	4
18	Robin ♂	13	0.5%	2
19	William Page ♂	12	0.5%	1
20	Rugby ♂	10	0.4%	2
21	First Servant ♂	2	0.1%	1
22	All ♂	1	0.0%	1
23	& C ♂	1	0.0%	1
24	Second Servant ♂	1	0.0%	1
25	Servant ♂	1	0.0%	1

Line counts act by act

Act	Scenes	Lines	Speakers
Act 1	4	528	15
Act 2	3	592	15
Act 3	5	645	19
Act 4	6	544	16
Act 5	5	306	13

Longest scenes in The Merry Wives of Windsor

Scene	Lines	Speakers
Act 2, Scene 2	295	6
Act 1, Scene 1	274	10
Act 5, Scene 5	236	12
Act 2, Scene 1	211	9
Act 3, Scene 3	207	9

Common questions

How long is The Merry Wives of Windsor?

The Merry Wives of Windsor contains 2,615 lines of dialogue across 5 acts and 23 scenes — roughly 114 lines per scene on average.

Who speaks the most in The Merry Wives of Windsor?

Falstaff leads the cast with 433 lines — about 17% of the play.

Which act of The Merry Wives of Windsor is longest?

Act 3 runs 645 lines across 5 scenes.

The Merry Wives of Windsor