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    The Comedy of Errors
    The Comedy of Errors
    The Comedy of Errors
    Ebook90 pages1 hour

    The Comedy of Errors

    By William Shakespear

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    The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. The Comedy of Errors (along with The Tempest) is one of only two of Shakespeare's plays to observe the Unity of Time (classical unities). It has been adapted for opera, stage, screen and musical theatre numerous times worldwide. The Comedy of Errors tells the story of two sets of identical twins that were accidentally separated at birth (Shakespeare was father to one pair of twins). Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant, Dromio of Syracuse, arrive in Ephesus, which turns out to be the home of their twin brothers, Antipholus of Ephesus and his servant, Dromio of Ephesus. When the Syracusans encounter the friends and families of their twins, a series of wild mishaps based on mistaken identities lead to wrongful beatings, a near-seduction, the arrest of Antipholus of Ephesus, and false accusations of infidelity, theft, madness, and demonic possession.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSheba Blake Publishing
    Release dateMay 8, 2017
    ISBN9783961897056
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      Book preview

      The Comedy of Errors - William Shakespear

      2017

      TABLE OF CONTENT

      THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

      TABLE OF CONTENT

      PERSONS REPRESENTED.

      ACT I.

      SCENE 1.

      SCENE 2.

      ACT II.

      SCENE 1.

      SCENE 2.

      ACT III.

      SCENE 1.

      SCENE 2.

      ACT IV.

      SCENE 1.

      SCENE 2.

      SCENE 3.

      SCENE 4.

      ACT V.

      SCENE 1.

      PERSONS REPRESENTED.

      SOLINUS, Duke of Ephesus.


      AEGEON, a Merchant of Syracuse.


      ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS, Twin brothers and sons to Aegion and ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE, and Aemelia, but unknown to each other.

      DROMIO OF EPHESUS, Twin brothers, and attendants on
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE, the two Antipholuses.

      BALTHAZAR, a Merchant.


      ANGELO, a Goldsmith.


      A MERCHANT, friend to Antipholus of Syracuse.


      PINCH, a Schoolmaster and a Conjurer.

      AEMILIA, Wife to Aegeon, an Abbess at Ephesus.


      ADRIANA, Wife to Antipholus of Ephesus.


      LUCIANA, her Sister.


      LUCE, her Servant.

      A COURTEZAN
Gaoler, Officers, Attendants

      ACT I.

      SCENE 1.

      A hall in the DUKE'S palace.

      [Enter the DUKE, AEGEON, GAOLER, OFFICERS, and other ATTENDANTS.]

      AEGEON.
Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall,
And, by the doom of death, end woes and all.

      DUKE.
Merchant of Syracuse, plead no more;
I am not partial to infringe our laws:
The enmity and discord which of late
Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your duke
To merchants, our well-dealing countrymen,--
Who, wanting guilders to redeem their lives,
Have seal'd his rigorous statutes with their bloods,--
Excludes all pity from our threat'ning looks.
For, since the mortal and intestine jars
'Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us,
It hath in solemn synods been decreed,
Both by the Syracusians and ourselves,
To admit no traffic to our adverse towns;
Nay, more,
If any born at Ephesus be seen
At any Syracusian marts and fairs;--
Again, if any Syracusian born
Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies,
His goods confiscate to the Duke's dispose;
Unless a thousand marks be levied,
To quit the penalty and to ransom him.--
Thy substance, valued at the highest rate,
Cannot amount unto a hundred marks:
Therefore by law thou art condemn'd to die.

      AEGEON.
Yet this my comfort,--when your words are done,
My woes end likewise with the evening sun.

      DUKE.
Well, Syracusan, say, in brief, the cause
Why thou departedst from thy native home,
And for what cause thou cam'st to Ephesus.

      AEGEON.
A heavier task could not have been impos'd
Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable!
Yet, that the world may witness that my end
Was wrought by nature, not by vile offence,
I'll utter what my sorrow gives me leave.
In Syracuse was I born; and wed
Unto a woman, happy but for me,
And by me too, had not our hap been bad.
With her I liv'd in joy; our wealth increas'd
By prosperous voyages I often made
To Epidamnum, till my factor's death,
And he,--great care of goods at random left,--
Drew me from kind embracements of my spouse:
From whom my absence was not six months old,
Before herself,--almost at fainting under
The pleasing punishment that women bear,--
Had made provision for her following me,
And soon and safe arrived where I was.
There had she not been long but she became
A joyful mother of two goodly sons;
And, which was strange, the one so like the other
As could not be disdnguish'd but by names.
That very hour, and in the self-same inn,
A mean woman was delivered
Of such a burden, male twins, both alike:
Those,--for their parents were exceeding poor,--
I bought, and brought up to attend my sons.
My wife, not meanly proud of two such boys,
Made daily motions for our home return:
Unwilling I agreed; alas! too soon!
We came aboard:
A league from Epidamnum had we sail'd
Before the always-wind-obeying deep
Gave any tragic instance of our harm;
But longer did we not retain much hope:
For what obscured light the heavens did grant
Did but convey unto our fearful minds
A doubtful warrant of immediate death;
Which though myself would gladly have embrac'd,
Yet the incessant weepings of my wife,
Weeping before for what she saw must come,
And piteous plainings of the pretty babes,
That mourn'd for fashion, ignorant what to fear,
Forc'd me to seek delays for them and me.
And this it was,--for other means was none.--
The sailors sought for safety by our boat,
And left the ship, then sinking-ripe, to us;:
My wife, more careful for the latter-born,
Had fast'ned him unto a small spare mast,
Such as sea-faring men provide for storms:
To him one of the other twins was bound,
Whilst I had been like heedful of the other.
The children thus dispos'd, my wife and I,
Fixing our eyes on whom our care was fix'd,
Fast'ned ourselves at either end the mast,
And, floating straight, obedient to the stream,
Were carried towards Corinth, as we thought.
At length the sun, gazing upon the earth,
Dispers'd those vapours that offended us;
And, by the benefit of his wish'd light,
The seas wax'd

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