The Comedy of Errors

By William Shakespeare

"The Comedy of Errors" is the story of two identical twins named Antipholus who are separated following a shipwreck 25 years earlier. Antipholus of Ephesus grows up in Ephesus with his mother, while Antipholus of Syracuse grows up in Syracuse with his father. Despite a ban on travel between the two cities, their father, Egeon, travels from Syracuse to Ephesus to try and find his long lost son and wife.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digireads.com Publishing
• Release date: Jan 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781596252349

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

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THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

By WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

A Digireads.com Book

Digireads.com Publishing

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-2623-1

Ebook ISBN 13: 978-1-59625-234-9

This edition copyright © 2012

Please visit www.digireads.com

CONTENTS

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

ACT I.

SCENE I. A hall in DUKE SOLINUS's palace.

SCENE II. The Mart.

ACT II.

SCENE I. The house of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus.

SCENE II. A public place.

ACT III.

SCENE I. Before the house of ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS.

SCENE II. The same.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. A public place.

SCENE II. The house of ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS.

SCENE III. A public place.

SCENE IV. A street.

ACT V.

SCENE I. A street before a Priory.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

SOLINUS, Duke of Ephesus.

AEGEON, a Merchant of Syracuse.

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS, Twin brother of Antipholus of Syracuse and son to Aegion.

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE, Twin brother of Antipholus of Ephesus and son to Aegion.

DROMIO OF EPHESUS, Twin brother of Dromio of Syracuse and attendants on the two Antipholuses.

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE, Twin brother of Dromio of Ephesus and attendants on 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.

NELL, her Servant.

A COURTESAN

Gaoler, Officers, Attendants

SCENE: Ephesus.

ACT I.

SCENE I. A hall in DUKE SOLINUS's palace.

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

AEGEON. Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall

And by the doom of death end woes and all.

DUKE SOLINUS. 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 threatening 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 condemned to die.

AEGEON. Yet this my comfort: when your words are done,

My woes end likewise with the evening sun.

DUKE SOLINUS. Well, Syracusian, say in brief the cause

Why thou departed'st from thy native home

And for what cause thou camest to Ephesus.

AEGEON. A heavier task could not have been imposed

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 sorrows give me leave.

In Syracusa was I born, and wed

Unto a woman, happy but for me,

And by me, had not our hap been bad.

With her I lived in joy; our wealth increased

By prosperous voyages I often made

To Epidamnum; till my factor's death

And the 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 distinguish'd but by names.

That very hour, and in the self-same inn,

A meaner 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 embraced,

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,

Forced 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 fasten'd

Reviews for The Comedy of Errors

[amerynth · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I wasn't surprised to learn that "Comedy of Errors" is one of Shakespeare's early plays. It really seemed unpolished compared to some of his best-known work.I guess my major objection was with the whole switcharoo premise, which seemed so implausible that I couldn't suspend that much disbelief.I perhaps might have enjoyed a performance of the play more than a read of it. Definitely one of my least favorites of the Shakespeare plays I've read.

[meandmybooks-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fast and facile. A Shakespearean sit-com – clever and silly, but with no depth. This one, more than most, I think, needs to be seen performed to be properly appreciated – I imagine all the mix-ups might be quite entertaining, properly acted. Unfortunately I read it, along with a Librivox recording by a cast that included some really talented readers, some who were clearly new to the English language, and a robot. In fairness I'll admit that I'm generally luke-warm on the comedies, aside from “Much Ado, so my lack of enthusiasm probably doesn't say much about the actual merits of this play.

[wilsonknut · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is one of Will's earlier comedies. There's a lot of slapstick, insults, and raunchy humor. This has the classic line, "She is spherical, like a globe. I could find out countries in her."

[wealhtheowwylfing · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Really excellent insults and figures of speech throughout a ridiculous play. This play should not be performed "straight," or read silently--you need a framing device, or great physical comedy, or *something* to bring it up to the level of Shakespeare's other plays. Because there really isn't much to this farce, and what little substance there is, is a bit sketchy (ah, beating one's slave--hilarity!). Also, I hate mistaken identity stories, so I was prejudiced against this from the start.

[katieloucks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Absolutely loved it!! I loved the doubles!!!

[lizpatanders · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This play probably ties with Twelfth Night for my favorite Shakespeare play of those that I've read. The concept of people constantly mixing up two twins and this wreaking lots of havoc may not be the most advanced ever, but Shakespeare plays it out really well here.This play lives up to its status in the comedy of category. I found the humor very situational, and at times couldn't help but laugh at the irony of the characters' circumstances.I also thought that the characterization was quite well done here. The reader actually does get a fair amount of insight into Adriana's marriage with Antipholus of Ephesus and her feelings. I felt that I also got good insight into why things were happening because Shakespeare partially develops these charactesr by talking about the problems (and their anxieties regarding them) which they need to eliminate to avoid being arrested.I also thought this play was a quick read over all. I thought that the characters kept the reader engaged, as did the plot. It left me wanting to know what happened. Even if this play is a comedy, I think there's lots of other good reasons to enjoy it!

[vicarofdibley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

another of the 1890 wee books from the same series, wonder what else is out there

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Have you ever seen the 1988 movie Big Business? If you have then you know the general idea of this play’s premise. Two sets of twins are born in the same place on the same night. One set of twins is wealthy, the other is not. The twins are separated at birth and one brother from each set end up growing up together as servant and master. Just to add to the confusion, the twins from each pair have the same name. The play is one big case of mistaken identity. Friends, lovers, foes, everyone is completely confused as they run into the brothers and mistake them for their twin. I think this would be an incredibly entertaining play for kids to see, especially if they’re new to Shakespeare’s work. It’s easy to follow and contains lots of big laughs. In later plays the Bard uses cases of mistaken identity and sets of twins to aid a larger story. This play feels like an early draft of the greater work to come, but it lacks the depth of his other plays. BOTTOM LINE: This is the shortest and shallowest of Shakespeare’s comedies. I have a feeling it would be really fun to see performed live, but it doesn’t work as well in the written form.

[bryndahlquis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great fun! Bit hard to get into at first, but it's hilarious once you do. I feel very sorry for everyone in this play, but that doesn't make it any less funny.

[joririchardson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" because it seems to contain a dash of all his comedic abilities and elements, all thrown together into one play.This is the story of two sets of identical twins separated at birth. When the four of them end up in the same city at the same time, all sorts of, well, comedy and error ensues.Shakespeare makes sharp use of his usual witty twist of wordplay, farce and puns. Throw in theft, madness, more cases of mistaken identity than you could ever wish for, public beatings, arrest, false accusations, and fake possession, and you have this wild story.I wouldn't call this one perfect or without "errors" of its own, however. There is not much variation or development in the plot, and the joke gets old after awhile.All the same, it's Shakespeare, and a great introduction to his comedies.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Obviously an earlier work. More slapstick than his more sophisticated humor in his later works. The unfortunate servants serve as the receiving end of a Punch and Judy show. I don't recall that type of humor in his other works. But the "punderful" use of the English language is there from the start. Not a very compelling play, but fun nonetheless.

[stefany_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I went into this fairly skeptical of how much I would actually enjoy it. I was told that it was Shakespeare's first play and that the only reason that my instructor was having us read it was because it is actually being performed here on campus and we are required to attend the one-night-only performance. Not a glowing recommendation to have before starting a book!The play is surprisingly easy to follow and understand. The humor is actually funny and I found myself chuckling out loud and enjoying the many puns and instances of word play that take place throughout caused by the many mistakes in identity that occur due to the presence of two sets of long separated twins. The play does require the reader/viewer to suspend reality in order for the premise to work, but all in all, it's quite entertaining and worth checking out if you're interested in this sort of thing.

[cmbohn · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not one of Shakespeare's best. Two pairs of twins were separated shortly after birth, one pair gentlemen and one pair servants. They are reunited after a series of confusing events and mistaken identity. It wasn't a bad play, and would probably be funnier on stage, but it didn't seem enough of a plot for 5 whole acts.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Shakespeare set this farce about identical twins in the ancient world. Early in the play, the father of one set of twins explains how the pairs were separated in a ship wreck. This background prepares the audience for scene after scene of mistaken identity as the Syracusan and Ephesian pairs move about Ephesus. I read along as I listened to the Arkangel audio production and laughed aloud at the characters’ confusion. It doesn’t pay to think too deeply about the plot. The Syracusan pair had been traveling for several years in search of their lost twins, so why didn’t it occur to them that their twins were living in Ephesus when all these strangers thought they were someone else?

[mkfs-354306 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A good page of fat jokes, and no end of a-woman's-role-in-marriage repartee, but overall a rather mindless play. The introduction in the Norton Shakespeare struggles to find depth, citing the issue of identity which The Bard clearly doesn't grapple with here.