The Comedy of Errors

Introduction

Just before we open up to Act I of The Comedy of Errors there are a few suggestions. This play can be confusing, but there is a pretty easy way to keep it straight. Bear in mind the following: There are no disguises and nobody pretends to be anyone other than who they are. There is simply mistaken identity a plenty because of the two sets of identical twins.

And even though this is a comedy, indeed, a farce, there are tragic elements afoot: immediate threat of execution, broken families, troubled marriages, apparent madness, grief and anger and frequent violence. However, being a comedy, all of this gets resolved nicely in the end and it is even written so that the laughs virtually follow on the heels of or are even simultaneous with the tragic elements throughout the play. Such is farce.

Perhaps most importantly, here is an easy way to keep the characters straight. Remember that the entire play is set in one day in Ephesus, that Ephesus and Syracuse are at virtual war and that one set of twins (Antipholus S and Dromio S) are visitors from Syracuse and the other set of twins (Antipholus E and Dromio E) are at home in Ephesus. So the Syracuse twins will be bedazzled by this place because of the confusions in identity while the lives of the Ephesus twins is turned upside down by the arrival of the twins from Syracuse. The two Ephesian twins are more frustrated than amazed. If you keep that much in mind you should easily follow along with the complex mistaken identities. I will always write the “S” or the “E” along with every reference to both sets of twins. Phewh!

Act I (2 scenes)

Scene i

The Duke’s palace

Enter the Duke and Aegeon (Syracuse merchant)

Aegeon: “Proceed to procure my fall, and by the doom of death end woes and all.”

Duke: “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 Syracusan born come to Ephesus – he dies, unless a thousand marks be levied to ransom him. Thy substance cannot amount to a hundred marks; therefore by law thou art condemned to die.”

Aegeon: “Yet this is my comfort as my woes will end with the evening sun.”

Duke: “Well, Syracusan, say in brief what has caused thou to come to Ephesus.”

Aegeon: “In Syracuse was I born, and wed unto a woman, and with her I lived in joy. She became a joyful mother of two goodly sons, the one so like the other as could not be distinguished but by name. That very hour, a woman was delivered of male twins, both alike. Those, for their parents were exceedingly poor, I bought, and brought up to attend my sons. A league before Epidamnum had we sailed before the always-wind-obeying deep gave any tragic instance of our harm; but longer did we not retain much hope, but conveyed unto our fearful minds a doubtful warrant of immediate death. My wife, more careful for the latter-born, had fastened him unto a small spare mast. To him one of the other twins was bound, while I had been like heedful of the other. The children thus disposed, my wife and I fastened ourselves at either end of the mast. We were encountered by a mighty rock and our ship was split in the midst, so that, in this unjust divorce of us, fortune had left to both of us alike what to delight in, what to sorrow for. Thus have you heard me severed from my bliss, that by misfortunes was my life prolonged, to tell sad stories of my own mishaps. Five summers have I spent in farthest Greece, roaming clean through the bounds of Asia, and I came to Ephesus, loath to leave unsought any place that harbours men. But here must end the story of my life.”

Duke: “Yet will I favour thee in what I can. Beg thou, or borrow, to make up the sum, and live; if no, then thou art due to die.”

Analysis

This is a farcical comedy and yet the first scene plays more like a tragedy, establishing the story of these two adversarial cities and the plight of Aegeon and his family estranged at sea. We learn that he and his wife had two identical sons and then purchased two identical servants to serve them. A storm tore them apart and he and his one son and servant have searched for years all over the Mediterranean Sea for his other son and servant and his wife. Aegeon searches alone, as his one son and servant are also searching this enormous region for their missing brothers. Shakespeare provides us with information that the characters themselves lack and this will drive the farce. The entire story is set in one day in ancient Ephesus and we know the necessary back story to the play. What we do not know yet, and neither does Aegeon, is that both sets of sons and servants are, indeed, here in mysterious Ephesus. One set (Antipholus E and Dromio E) has lived here comfortably for nearly their entire lives following the shipwreck over twenty years ago, while his other identical set of twins, from Syracuse (Antipholus S and Dromio S), has just arrived in search of their twins, as has, coincidentally, Aegeon. We will very soon meet both sons and both servants. What will be slapstick to us is only confusion, frustration and near madness to them. We will soon be well aware that we are watching a comedy, whereas the characters will be tormented by confusion that is anything but funny. This matter of perspective, in a nutshell, is the real genius of ‘The Comedy of Errors’.

Act I

Scene ii

The mart

Enter Antipholus of Syracuse, Dromio of Syracuse and First Merchant

First Merchant: “This very day a Syracusan merchant is apprehended for arrival here; and, not being able to buy out his life, dies ere the weary sun sets in the west. There is your money.”

Antipholus S: “Go bear it to the Centaur, where we host. And stay there, Dromio, till I come to thee. Till then, I’ll view the manners of the town.”

Exit Dromio S

Antipholus S: “A trusty villain, sir, who very often when I am dull with care and melancholy, lightens my humour with his merry jests.“

Exit First Merchant

Antipholus S: “I to the world am like a drop of water that in the ocean seeks another drop, who, failing there to find his fellow forth, confounds himself, so I, to find a mother and a brother, in quest of them, unhappy, lose myself.“

Enter Dromio E

Antipholus S: “How chance thou art returned so soon?”

Dromio E: “Returned so soon! Rather approached too late. The capon burns, the pig falls from the spit, the clock hath struck twelve upon the bell – my mistress is so hot because the meat is cold, the meat is cold because you come not home, you come not home because you have no stomach, you have no stomach, having broke your fast.”

Antipholus S: “Stop in your wind, sir. Tell me this: where have you left the money that I gave you.”

Dromio E: “I kept it not.”

Antipholus S: “I am not in a sportive humour. Tell me, where is the money? Come, Dromio, these jests are out of season. Reserve them till a merrier hour than this. Where is the gold I gave in charge to thee?”

Dromio E: “To me, sir? Why, you gave no gold to me.”

Antipholus S: “Come on, sir knave, have done your foolishness, and tell me how thou has disposed thy charge.”

Dromio E: “My charge was but to fetch you from the mart, home to your house, to dinner. My mistress and her sister stay for you.”

Antipholus S: “Now, as I am a Christian, answer me in what safe place have you bestowed my money, or I shall break that merry sconce of yours. Where is the thousand marks thou had of me?”

Dromio E: “I have some marks of yours upon my pate, some of my mistress’ marks upon my shoulders, but not a thousand marks between you both.”

Antipholus S: “Thy mistress’ marks! What mistress?”

Dromio E: “Your worship’s wife; she who dost fast until you come home to dinner.”

Antipholus S: “What, will thou flout me thus unto my face? There, take you that, sir knave.” (beats him)

Exit Dromio E

Antipholus S: “Upon my life, they say this town is full of cozenage, dark-working sorcerers and soul-killing witches. I greatly fear my money is not safe.”

Analysis

The two scenes of Act I introduce us to the tragic and the comedic elements of the play. Aegeon must die if he does not raise a thousand marks by day’s end and then the mistaken identities begin in earnest between Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromio of Ephesus, each mistaking the other for his accustomed counterpart. Antipholus of Syracuse is the more interesting of the two brothers, as he is continually amazed at the seemingly magical and sinister events he encounters, whereas Antipholus of Ephesus tends to be irritated that his domesticity is challenged so abruptly. In scene ii Antipholus of Syracuse finally beats Dromio of Ephesus in the confusion of the mistaken identity. The Dromios take regular beatings throughout the play, but they are more humorous than cruel and played for laughs. When Antipholus of Syracuse finally concludes that this is a town full of ‘cozenage, sorcery and witchcraft’, Shakespeare’s audiences would have recalled the biblical passage where Paul visits Ephesus and indeed finds it to be precisely that. But there is no such magic or witchcraft in ‘The Comedy of Errors’. There is only mistaken identity, which naturally is only sorted out in Act V, in one of Shakespeare’s finest reconciliation scenes.

Act II (2 scenes)

Scene i

The house of Antipholus of Ephesus

Enter Adriana (his wife) and Luciana (her sister)

Adriana: “Neither my husband nor the slave returned that in such haste I sent to seek his master.”

Luciana: “Good sister, let us dine, and never fret. A man is master of his liberty. Time is their master. Be patient, sister.”

Adriana: “Why should their liberty be more than ours?”

Luciana: “Because their business still lies out of doors. Man, more divine, indued with intellectual sense and souls, are masters to their females. Then let your will attend on their accords. I’ll practice to obey.”

Enter Dromio of Ephesus

Adriana: “Say, is your tardy master now at hand?”

Dromio E: “Nay, he’s at two hands with me, and that my two ears can witness.”

Adriana: “Knowest thou his mind?”

Dromio E: “Ay, he told me his mind upon my ear.”

Luciana: “Spoke he so doubtfully thou could not feel his meaning?”

Dromio E: “Nay, he struck so plainly I could too well feel his blows.”

Adriana: “But say, is he coming home?”

Dromio E: “Why, mistress, sure my master is horn-mad.”

Adriana: “Horn-mad, thou villain!”

Dromio E: “He is stark mad. When I desired him to come home for dinner, he asked me for a thousand marks in gold. ‘I know of no house and no wife’ quote my master.”

Adriana: “Go back again, thou slave, and fetch him home.”

Dromio E: “Go back again, and be new beaten home? For God’s sake, send some other messenger.”

Adriana: “Back, slave, or I will break thy pate across.”

Dromio E: “And he will bless that cross with another beating; between you I shall have a holy head. You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither; if I last in this service , you must case me in leather.“

Dromio exits

Adriana: “What ruins are in me that can be found by him not ruined? He feeds from home.”

Luciana: “Self-harming jealousy! Fie, beat it hence.”

Adriana: “I know his eye doth homage otherwhere; or else he would be here.”

Luciana: “How many fond fools serve mad jealousy.”

Analysis

We meet Antipholus E’s jealous wife Adriana and her more traditional sister, Luciana. But Adriana is only jealous because of this new situation where she seems to have two husbands, those being Antipholus E, her actual husband and his long lost twin, Antipholus S. All of the principle characters will be severely challenged by the ‘situation’ of the double set of identical twins and each will manage it in their own unique way.

Act II

Scene ii

The mart

Enter Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromio of Syracuse

Antipholus S: “How now, sir, is your merry humour altered? You know no Centaur! You received no gold! Your mistress sent to have me home to dinner! Wast thou mad?”

Dromio S: “What answer, sir? When spoke I such a word?

Antipholus S: “Not half an hour since.”

Dromio S: “I did not see you since you sent me with the gold you gave me.”

Antipholus S: “Villain, thou did deny the gold receipt, and told me of a mistress and a dinner.”

Dromio S: “I am glad to see you in this merry vein. What means this jest? I pray you, master, tell me.”

Antipholus S: “Does thou jeer and flout me? Think’st thou I jest? Hold, take thou that and that.” (beats him)

Dromio S: “I pray, sir, why am I beaten?”

Antipholus S: “Dost thou not know?”

Dromio S: “Nothing, sir, but that I am beaten.”

Antipholus S: “Shall I tell you why?”

Dromio S: “Ay, sir, and wherefore; for they say every why hath a wherefore. Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season, when in the why and the wherefore is neither rhyme or reason? Well, thank you, sir.”

Antipholus S: “Thank me, sir? For what?”

Dromio S: “Merry, sir, for this something that you gave me for nothing.”

Antipholus S: “I’ll make you amends next, to give you nothing for something. Learn to jest in good time; there’s a time for all things.”

Enter Adriana and Luciana

Adriana: “Ay, ay, Antipholus, look strange and frown. Some other mistress hath thy sweet aspects. I am not Adriana, nor thy wife. How comes it now, my husband, that thou art then estranged from thyself? Ah, do not tear away thyself from me. How dearly would it touch thee to the quick, should thou but hear I were licentious, and that this body, consecrate to thee, by ruffian lust should be contaminate! Would thou not spit at me and spurn me? For if we two be one, and thou play false, I do digest the poison of thy flesh, being strumpet by the contagion.“

Antipholus S: “Fair dame? I know you not. In Ephesus I am but two hours old.”

Luciana: “Fie, brother, my sister sent for you by Dromio home to dinner.”

Antipholus S: “By Dromio?”

Dromio S: “By me?”

Antipholus S: “Did you converse, sir, with this gentlewoman?”

Dromio S: “I never saw her until this time.”

Antipholus S: “Villain, thou liest; for even her very words did thou deliver to me on the mart.”

Dromio S: “I never spoke with her in all my life.”

Antipholus S: “How can she thus, then, call us by our names? To me she speaks. Was I married to her in my dreams? Or sleep I now, and think I hear all this? What error drives our ears and eyes amiss? Until I know this sure uncertainty, I’ll entertain the offered fallacy.”

Dromio S: “This is the fairy land. We talk with goblins, owls and sprites.”

Adriana: “Come, sir, to dinner. Dromio, keep the gate. Sirrah, if any ask you for your master, say he dines forth, and let no creature enter. Dromio, play the porter well.”

Antipholus S: “Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell? Sleeping or waking, mad or well-advised?”

Dromio S: “Master, shall I be porter at the gate?”

Adriana: “Ay, and let none enter, lest I break your pate.”

Analysis

The confusion deepens as Antipholus of Syracuse is confronted by Adriana and Luciana, who believe he is Antipholus of Ephesus, her husband. As amazed as Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse are, they play along with the odd adventure, Antipholus having dinner with this woman claiming to be his wife, while Dromio guards the door. As we will see next, the wonderment experienced by Antipholus of Syracuse is quite different from the experience of Antipholus of Ephesus, whose familiar world seems to be crashing down all around him.

Act III (2 scenes)

Scene i

Before the house of Antipholus of Ephesus

Enter Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus and Balthazar

Antipholus E: “My wife is shrewish when I keep not hours.”

Dromio E: “Say what you will, sir, but that you beat me at the mart I have your hand to show; if the skin were parchment, and the blows you gave were ink, your own handwriting would tell you what I think.”

Antipholus E: “I think thou art an ass. My door is locked; go bid them let us in.”

Dromio S: (from within) “Get thee from the door.”

Dromio E: “My master stays in the street.”

Dromio S: (from within) “Let him walk from whence he came.”

Antipholus E: “Who talks within there? Ho, open the door. I have not dined today. What art thou that keeps me out of the house I own?”

Dromio S: (from within) “The porter for this time, sir, and my name is Dromio.”

Dromio E: “O villain, thou has stolen both my office and my name.”

Antipholus E: “Thou baggage, let me in! You’ll cry for this, minion, if I beat the door down.”

Enter Adriana within

Adriana: “Who is that at the door?”

Dromio S: (within) “By my truth, your town is troubled with unruly boys.”

Antipholus E: “Are you there, wife?”

Adriana: (within) “Your wife, sir knave! Go get you from the door.”

Antipholus E: “There is something in the wind. Go fetch me something and I will break open the gate.”

Balthazar: “Have patience, sir; herein you war against your reputation. Be ruled by me and depart in patience.”

Antipholus E: “You have prevailed. I will depart in quiet.”

Analysis

This scene with poor Antipholus of Ephesus barred from his own house may be played for farce but it is certainly not funny to him. He becomes understandably infuriated and suspicious of his wife for not admitting him home. Things are spinning more and more out of control at the halfway mark of the play. There is plenty of time for more confusion before everything gets straightened out, as always in a comedy, in Act V.

Act III

Scene ii

Before the house of Antipholus of Ephesus

Enter Luciana with Antipholus of Syracuse

Luciana: “Use my sister with more kindness. If you like elsewhere, do it by stealth. Let not my sister read it in your eye; be not thy tongue thy own shame’s orator. Apparel vice like virtue’s harbinger. Bear a fair presence, though your heart be tainted; teach sin the carriage of a holy saint. Comfort my sister, cheer her, call her wife.”

Antipholus S: “Teach me, dear creature, how to think and speak. Are you a god? Would you create me new? Transform me, then, and to your power I’ll yield. Your weeping sister is no wife of mine, nor to her bed no homage do I owe.”

Luciana: “What, are you mad?”

Antipholus S: “Not mad, but mated.”

Luciana: “Gaze where you should, and that will clear your sight.”

Antipholus S: “Thee will I love.”

Exit Luciana

Enter Dromio of Syracuse

Antipholus S: “Why, how now, Dromio! Where runs thou so fast?”

Dromio S: “Do you know me, sir? Am I Dromio? Am I your man? Am I myself?“

Antpholus S: “Thou art Dromio, thou art my man, thou art thyself.“

Dromio S: “I am an ass, I am a woman’s man, and besides myself. I am due to a woman – one who claims me, one who haunts me, one who will have me.“

Antipholus S: “What claim lays she to thee?“

Dromio S: “Mary, sir, such claim as you would lay to your horse; and she would have me as a beast: not that, I being a beast, she would have me; but that she, being a very beastly creature, lays claim to me.“

Antipholus S: “What is she?”

Dromio S: “Sir, she’s the kitchen wench, and all grease; yet I know not what to put her to but to make a lamp out of her and run from her by her own light. If she lives till doomsday, she’ll burn a week longer than the whole world.“

Antipholus S: “What complexion is she of?”

Dromio S: “Swart, like my shoe. She sweats.”

Antipholus S: “Then she bears some breadth?“

Dromio S: “No longer from head to foot than from hip to hip: she is spherical, like a globe; I could find out countries in her.“

Antipholus S: “In what part of he body stands Ireland?“

Dromio S: “Marry, sir, in her buttocks; I found it out by the bogs.”

Antipholus S: “Where Scotland?“

Dromio S: “I found it in the barrenness.“

Antipholus S: “Where England?“

Dromio S: “I looked for the chalky cliffs, but I could find no whiteness in them.“

Antipholus S: “Where Spain?“

Dromio S: “Faith, I saw it not, but I felt it hot in her breath.“

Antipholus S: “Where America, the Indies?“

Dromio S: “Oh sir, upon her nose, embellished with rubies, carbuncles and saphires.“

Antipholus S: “Where stood Belgium and the Netherlands?“

Dromio S: “Oh sir, I did not look so low. To conclude: this drudge or diviner laid claim to me; called me Dromio; swore I was assured to her. I, amazed, ran from her as a witch.”

Antipholus S: “If the wind blow any way from shore, I will not harbour in this town tonight. If everyone knows us, and we know none, tis time, I think, to trudge, pack and be gone. There’s none but witches do inhabit here.”

Enter Angelo with a chain

Angelo: “Master Antipholus!”

Antipholus S: “Ay, that’s my name.”

Angelo: “Here is the chain I thought to have taken you.”

Antipholus S: “What is your will that I shall do with this?”

Angelo: “I have made it for you.”

Antipholus S: “I bespoke it not.”

Angelo: “Not once nor twice, but twenty times you have. Go home with it, and please your wife, and soon at supper-time I will visit you, and then receive my money for the chain.”

Analysis

Antipholus of Syracuse dines with the woman who claims to be his wife but then falls in love with her sister. Of course her sister also believes him to be her sister’s husband and advises Antipholus to use more stealth in his betrayal. She does not exactly turn him down, but rather suggests he be more discreet.

In one of the play’s funniest scenes Dromio of Syracuse reports to his master his adventures with the kitchen wench, who pursues him aggressively, believing him to be her husband, Dromio of Ephesus. The mistaken identities have seemingly countless permutations, as all of the affected individuals get caught up in the mayhem.

And then there is the question of the chain that Antipholus of Ephesus has ordered for his wife, which Angelo has given to Antipholus of Syracuse. Its only going to get more confusing in Act IV.

Act 4 (4 scenes)

Scene i

A public place

Enter merchant, Angelo and an officer

Merchant: “The sum is due. I am bound to Persia and want guilders for my voyage. Make present satisfaction or I’ll attach you to this officer.”

Angelo: “By Antipholus at five o’clock I shall receive the money for the same. Walk with me down to his house and I will discharge my bond.”

Enter Antipholus of Ephesus and Dromio of Ephesus

Antipholus E: “Buy a rope’s end; that will I bestow among my wife and her confederates, for locking me out of my doors.”

Dromio E: “I buy a rope.”

Exit Dromio of Ephesus

Antipholus E: “Neither chain nor goldsmith came to me.”

Angelo: “Saving your merry humour, I stand debted to this gentleman. I pray you see him presently discharged, for he is bound to sea.”

Antipholus E: “I am not finished with the present money. Take the stranger to my house, and with you take the chain, and bid my wife disburse the sum on the receipt thereof.”

Angelo: “Then you will bring the chain to her yourself?”

Antipholus E: “No; bear it with you.”

Angelo: “Have you the chain? I pray you, sir; give me the chain.”

Antipholus E: “Why, give it to my wife, and fetch your money.”

Angelo: “Come, come, you know I gave it to you even now.”

Antipholus E: “Fie, now you run this humour out of breath! Come, where is the chain? I owe you nothing till I receive the chain.”

Angelo: “You know I gave it to you half an hour since.”

Antipholus E: “You gave me none and you wrong me much to say so.”

Angelo: “You wrong me more, sir, in denying it.”

Merchant: “Well, officer, arrest him.”

Antipholus E: “Arrest me, foolish fellow, if thou darest.”

Officer: “I do arrest you, sir.”

Enter Dromio of Syracuse

Dromio S: “There’s a bark of Epidamnum that stays but till her owner comes aboard. Then she bears away. I have conveyed aboard. The ship is in her trim; the merry wind blows fair.”

Antipholus E: “How now! A madman? Why, what ship stays for me?”

Dromio S: “A ship you sent me to hire.”

Antipholus E: “Thou drunken slave. I sent thee for a rope. To Adriana, villain, give her this key, and tell her in the desk there is a purse of ducats; let her send it. Tell her I am arrested in the street, and that shall bail me.”

Analysis

Shakespeare catches all the characters in his web of intrigue as Angelo knows he gave the chain to Antipholus of Ephesus, having no idea that he actually gave it to his double, Antipholus of Syracuse. The Dromio of Syracuse arrives to assure his master that he has secured a ship for them to get away from this bewitched city, but in fact he speaks to Antipholus of Ephesus, which only deepens the confusion.

Act IV

Scene ii

The house of Antipholus of Ephesus

Enter Adriana and Luciana

Adriana: “Ah, Luciana, did he tempt you so?”

Luciana: “He swore he was a stranger here. Then pleaded I for you.”

Adriana: “And what said he?”

Luciana: “That love I begged for you he begged of me.”

Adriana: “With what persuasion did he tempt thy love?”

Luciana: “With words. First he did praise my beauty, and then my speech.”

Adriana: “He is deformed, crooked, old, ill-faced, worse bodied, shapeless, vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt and unkind.“

Luciana: “Who would be jealous then of such a one?“

Adriana: “Ah, but I think him better than I say. My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse.“

Enter Dromio of Syracuse

Dromio S: “Here go – the desk, the purse. Make haste.”

Adriana: “Where is your master, Dromio? Is he arrested?”

Dromio S: “Will you send him, mistress, redemption, the money in his desk?”

Adriana: “Go fetch it, sister. Thus he unknown to me should be in debt. Go, Dromio, there’s the money; bear it straight, and bring thy master home immediately.”

Analysis

Having just been informed by her own sister that her husband tried to seduce Luciana, Adriana nonetheless sends the money to have him freed from debt with instructions to have him brought home immediately.”

Act IV

Scene iii

The mart

Enter Antipholus of Syracuse

Antipholus S: “There is not a man I meet but doth salute me as if I were their well-acquainted friend; and every one doth call me by my name. Some tender money to me, some invite me, some other give me thanks for kindnesses, some offer me commodities to buy; even now a tailor called me in his shop, and showed me silks that he had bought for me, and therewithal took measure of my body. Sure, these are but imaginary wiles, and Lapland sorcerers inhabit here.“

Enter Dromio of Syracuse

Dromio S: “Master, here is the gold that you sent me for.”

Antipholus S: “What gold is this? Well, sir, rest there in your foolery. Is there any ship that puts forth tonight? May we be gone?”

Dromio S: “Why, sir, I brought you word an hour since that the Bark Expedition put forth tonight; and then were you hindered by the officer.”

Antipholus S: “The fellow is distract and so am I; and here we wander in illusions. Some blessed power deliver us from hence.”

Enter a courtezan

Courtezan: “Master Antipholus, I see you have found the goldsmith now. Is that the chain you promised me today?”

Antipholus S: “Satan, avoid! I charge thee, tempt me not.”

Dromio S: “Master, is this Mistress Satan?”

Antipholus S: “It is the devil.”

Dromio S: “It is written they appear to men as angels of light. Come not near her.”

Coutezan: “Will you go with me? We’ll mend our dinner.”

Antipholus S: “Thou art, as you all are, a sorceress. Leave me and be gone.”

Coutezan: “Give me the ring of mine you had at dinner, or for my diamond, the chain you promised, and I’ll be gone, sir.”

Dromio S: “Master, be wise. If you give it to her, the devil will shake her chain, and fright us with it.”

Coutezan: “I pray you, sir, my ring, or else the chain.”

Exit Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse

Courtezan: “Antipholus is mad. A ring he hath of mine worth forty ducats; and for the same he promised me a chain; both one and other he denies me now. The reason I gather that he is mad, besides this present instance of his rage, is a mad tale he told today at dinner of his own doors being shut against his entrance. Belike his wife, acquainted with his fits, on purpose shut the doors against his way. My way now is to go home to his house, and tell his wife that, being lunatic, he rushed into my house and took perforce my ring away. This course I fittest choose, for forty ducats is too much to lose.”

Analysis

The courtesan, who had dinner with angry Antipholus of Ephesus, now encounters Antipholus of Syracuse and thinks Antipholus mad. She determines to see Antipholus’ wife in order to get her ring, a chain or her forty ducats. Meanwhile, Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse think she is a witch. There is one more scene before Act V, which will then manage to rescue these absurdities for the final stunning resolution.

Act IV

Scene iv

A street

Enter Antipholus of Ephesus with the officer

Antipholus E: “Here comes my man; I think he brings the money. Have you that I sent you for? Where is the money?”

Enter Dromio of Ephesus

Dromio E: “Why, sir, I gave the money for the rope.”

Antipholus E: “Five hundred ducats, villain, for a rope? To what end did I bid thee home?”

Dromio E: “To a rope’s-end, sir.”

Antipholus E: “And to that end, sir, I will welcome you.” (beats him). “Thou whoreson, senseless villain!“

Dromio E: “I would I were senseless, sir, that I might not feel your blows. I have served him from the hour of my nativity, and have nothing at his hands for my service but blows.”

Enter Adriana, Luciana, the courtezan and Dr Pinch

Courtezan: “Is not your husband mad?”

Adriana: “His incivility confirms no less. Good Dr Pinch, you are a conjurer: establish him in his true sense again and I will please you what you will demand.”

Dr Pinch: “Give me your hand, and let me feel your pulse.”

Antipholus E: “There is my hand, and let it feel your ear.” (strikes him)

Dr Pinch: “I charge thee, Satan, housed within this man, to yield possession to my holy prayers.”

Antipholus E: “Peace, doting wizard, I am not mad.”

Adriana: “O, that thou were not, poor distressed soul.”

Antipholus E: “You minion, you. At my house today, upon me the guilty doors were shut and I denied to enter.”

Adriana: “O husband, God doth know that you dined at home.”

Antipholus E: “Dined at home? Thou villain, what sayest thou?”

Dromio E: “Sir, sooth to say, you did not dine at home.”

Antipholus E: “Did not her kitchen-maid rail, taunt and scorn me?”

Dromio E: “She did.”

Antipholus E: “And did not I in rage depart from thence?”

Dromio E: “In verity, you did. My bones bear witness.”

Antipholus E: “Thou, wife, hast suborned the goldsmith to arrest me.”

Adriana: “Alas, I sent you money to redeem you, by Dromio here.”

Dromio E: “Money by me?”

Adriana: “He came to me, and I delivered it.”

Dromio E: “I was sent for nothing but a rope!”

Dr Pinch: “Both man and master are possessed. They must be bound and laid in some dark room.”

Antipholus E: “Dissembling harlot! With these nails I’ll pluck out these false eyes that would behold in me this shameful sport.”

Adriana: “O, bind him. Bind him. Let him not come near me.”

Dr Pinch: “The fiend is strong within him.”

Exit all but Adriana, Luciana, officer and courtezan

Adriana: “Whose suit is he arrested at?”

Officer: “One Angelo, a goldsmith; do you know him?”

Adriana: “I know him. What is the sum he owes?”

Officer: “Two-hundred ducats. Due for a chain your husband had of him.”

Adriana: “He did bespeak a chain for me. Gaoler, bring me where the goldsmith is; I long to know the truth.”

Enter Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse

Luciana: “God, for thy mercy! They are loose again.”

Adriana: “Let’s call for more help to have them bound again.”

Officer: “Away, they will kill us.”

Exit all but Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse

Antipholus S: “Fetch our stuff. I long that we were safe and sound aboard. I will not stay tonight for all the town.”

Analysis

Literally, everyone in the play in now caught up in the confusion of there being two Antipholus’ and Dromios. But nobody realizes that this is the source of the confusion. Rather, it seems that madness and sorcery reign. And while everyone is amazed by the events, Act V will only amaze further, as it reveals a truth that will explain everything to everyone. Act V of The Comedy of Errors has perhaps the finest unraveling resolution in Shakespeare’s entire canon and its all contained in one momentum-maintaining scene of 422 lines.

Act V

Scene i

A street before a priory

Enter merchant and Angelo

Angelo: “I am sorry, sir, that I have hindered you; but I protest he had the chain of me, though most dishonestly he doth deny it.”

Merchant: “How is the man esteemed here in the city?”

Angelo: “Of very reverent reputation, sir, of credit infinite, highly beloved, second to none who live here in the city.”

Merchant: “Speak softly; yonder he walks.

Enter Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse

Angelo: “That self-chain about his neck which he forswore most monstrously not to have. Signor Antipholus, I wonder much that you would put me to this shame and trouble; and not without some scandal to yourself, to deny this chain, which now you wear so openly.”

Antipholus S: “I never did deny it. Who heard me deny it?”

Merchant: “These ears of mine, thou knows, did hear thee. Fie on thee, wretch. Tis pity that thou lives to walk where any honest men resort.”

Antipholus S: “Thou art a villain to impeach me thus. I’ll prove my honour against thee presently.”

Merchant: “I do defy thee for a villain.”

They draw their swords

Enter Adriana, Luciana and the courtezan

Adriana: “Hurt him not, for God’s sake! He is mad. Bind them both and bear them to my house.”

Dromio S: “Run, master, run; for God’s sake. This is some priory. In or we are spoiled.”

Exit Antipholus S and Dromio S into the priory

Abbess: “Be quiet, people. Wherefore throng you hither?”

Adriana: “To fetch my poor distracted husband hence. Let us come in, that we may bind him fast, and bear him home for his recovery.”

Abbess: “How long hath this possession held the man?”

Adriana: “This week; but till this afternoon his passion never broke into extremity of rage. Some love drew him from home.”

Abbess: “The venom clamours of a jealous woman poisons more deadly than a mad dog’s tooth. It seems his sleeps were hindered by thy railings and his meat was sauced with thy upbraiding. Unquiet meals make ill digestions. Thy jealous fits hath scarred thy husband from the use of wits.”

Luciana: “She never reprehended him but mildly.”

Adriana: “Good people, enter, and lay hold on him.”

Abbess: “No, not a creature enters my house. He took this place for sanctuary, and it shall privilege him from your hand till I have brought him to his wits again.”

Adriana: “I will attend my husband.”

Abbess: “Be patient; therefore depart, and leave him here with me.”

Exit the Abbess

Luciana: “Complain unto the Duke of this indignity.”

Adriana: “I will fall prostate at his feet.”

Merchant: “The Duke himself in person comes this way to see a Syracusan merchant beheaded publicly.”

Enter the Duke with Aegeon, bareheaded

Adriana: “Justice, most sacred Duke, against the Abbess!”

Duke: “She is a virtuous and reverend lady.”

Adriana: “My husband, this ill day, a most outrageous fit of madness took him, so desperately he hurried through the streets, with him his bondsman all as mad as he, doing displeasure to the citizens. Once did I get him bound and sent him home. He broke from those who had the guard of him, and with his mad attendant and himself, with drawn swords, met us again and, made bent on us, and chased us away, till, raising more aid, we came again to bind them. Then they fled into this abbey, wither we pursued them, and here the Abbess shuts the gates on us.”

Duke: “Knock at the abbey gate and bid the Lady Abbess come to me. I will determine this.”

Enter a messenger

Messenger: “O mistress, mistress, save yourself! My master and his man are both broke loose. They have bound the doctor, whose beard they have sing’d off with brands of fire. Unless you send some present help, between them they will kill the conjurer.”

Adriana: “Peace, fool! Thy master and his man are here.”

Messenger: “Mistress, upon my life, I tell you true: he cries for you and vows to scorch your face and to disfigure you. I hear him, mistress, fly, be gone!”

Adriana: “Ay me, it is my husband. Even now we housed him in the abbey here, and now he’s there, past thought of human reason.”

Enter Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus

Antipholus E: “Justice, most gracious Duke; O, grant me justice!”

Aegeon: “Unless the fear of death doth make me dote, I see my son Antipholus and Dromio.”

Antipholus E: “Justice, sweet prince, against that woman there! She has abused and dishonoured me. Beyond imagination is the wrong. This day, great Duke, she shut the door upon me.”

Duke: “Say, woman, do thou so?”

Adriana: “No, my good lord. Myself, he and my sister today did dine together.”

Luciana: “She tells your Highness the simple truth.”

Antipholus E: “My liege, this woman locked me out this day from dinner. That goldsmith there could witness it, for he was with me then. This perjured goldsmith swears that I this day did receive the chain, which, God he knows, I saw not; for the which he did arrest me. I did obey, and sent my peasant home for certain ducats; he with none returned. Then all together they fell upon me, bound me, bore me hence, and at a dark and dankish vault at home there left me and my man, both bound together; till, gnawing with my teeth, I gained my freedom and immediately ran hither to your Grace; whom I beseech to give me ample satisfaction for these deep shames and great indignities.”

Merchant: “You fled into this Abbey here, from whence, I think, you are come by miracle.”

Antipholus E: “I never came within these abbey walls.”

Duke: “I think you all have drunk from Circe’s cup. If here you housed him, here he would have been. If he were mad, he would not plead so coldly. Saw’st thou him enter the abbey here?”

Coutezan: “As sure, my liege, as I do see your Grace.”

Duke: “Why, this is strange. Go call the Abbess hither.”

Aegeon: “Most mighty Duke, haply I see a friend who will save my life. Is not your name, sir, called Antipholus, and is that not your bondman Dromio? I am sure you both remember me. Why look you so strange on me? You know me well.”

Antipholus E: “I never saw you in my life until now.”

Aegeon: “O! Grief hath changed me since you saw me last. And careful hours with time’s deformed hand have written strange misfeatures in my face. Dost thou not know my voice?”

Antipholus E: “Neither.”

Aegeon: “Not know my voice! O time’s extremity. Tell me thou art my son Antipholus.”

Antipholus E: “I never saw my father in my life.”

Aegeon: “But seven years since, in Syracuse, boy, thou know’st we parted.”

Antipholus E: “I never saw Syracuse in my life.”

Duke: “I tell thee, Syracusan, twenty years have I been patron to Antipholus, during which time he never saw Syracuse. I see thy age and dangers make thee dote.”

Re-enter the Abbess with Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse

All gather to see them

Adriana: “I see two husbands or my eyes deceive me.”

Duke: “One of these men is genius to the other. Which is the natural man and which is the spirit?”

Dromio S: “I, sir, am Dromio, command him away.”

Dromio E: “I, sir, am Dromio. Pray let me stay.”

Antipholus S: “Aegeon, art thou not? Or else his ghost?”

Dromio S: “O, my old master! Who hath bound him here?”

Abbess: “Whoever bound him, I will loose his bonds, and gain a husband by his liberty. Speak, Old Aegeon, if thou be the man who had a wife once called Aemilia. Speak unto the same Aemilia.”

Aegeon: “If I dream not thou art Aemilia, my wife.”

The Duke: “These two Antipholus’, these two so like, and these two Dromio’s, one in semblance – these are the parents to these children, who accidentally are met together. But I know not which is which.”

Adriana: “Which of you did dine with me today?”

Antipholus S: “I, gentle mistress.”

Adriana: “And are not you my husband?”

Antipholus E: “No, I say nay to that.”

Antipholus S: “And so do I, yet did she call me so. And this fair gentlewoman, her sister here did call me brother. (to Luciana) What I told you then I hope I should soon have leisure to make good; if this not be a dream.”

Angelo: “That is the chain, sir, which you had of me.”

Antipholus S: “I think it be, sir; I deny it not.”

Antipholus E: “And you, sir, for this chain arrested me.”

Angelo: I think I did, sir; I deny it not.”

Adriana: “I sent you money, sir, to be your bail, by Dromio.”

Dromio E: “No, none by me.”

Antipholus S: “This purse of ducats I received from you and Dromio my man did bring them to me. I see we still did meet each other’s man, and I was taken for him, and he for me, and thereupon these ERRORS are arose.”

Antipholus E: “These ducats pawn I for my father here.”

Duke: “It shall not need; thy father hath his life.”

Coutezan: “Sir, I must have that diamond from you.”

Antipholus E: “There, take it, and much thanks for my good cheer.”

Abbess: “Renowned Duke, vouchsafe to take the pains to go with us into the Abbey here, and hear at large discoursed all our fortunes; and all that are assembled in this place that by this sympathized one day error have suffered wrong. Thirty-three years have I but gone in travail of you, my sons.”

Dromio S: “Master, shall I fetch your stuff from shipboard?”

Antipholus E: “Dromio, what stuff of mine hast thou embarked?”

Antipholus S: “He speaks to me. I am your master, Dromio. Embrace your brother there. Rejoice with him.”

Exit Antipholus’ of Syracuse and Ephesus

Dromio E: “Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother. I see by you I am a sweet faced youth. We came into the world brother and brother, and now let’s go hand in hand, not one before another.”

Analysis

So the mounting confusion is ended by the Abbess, who surprisingly turns out to be Aegeon’s wife, Aemilia, and the mother to both Antipholus’. Thus completes the resolution of this Comedy of Errors. The entire family is re-united and Aegeon will not be killed for visiting Ephesus. Antipholus E and Dromio E have been in Ephesus for thirty years, searched for by Antipholus S and Dromio S for the past seven years and by Aegeon for the past five years. There has been no witchcraft or magic afoot. They simply finally found each other.

Final Thoughts:

A few oddities and leaps of imagination must be mentioned. In the first scene of the play Aegeon says that his twin sons were so much alike that they could only be distinguished by name… But then he goes on to name both identical twins Antipholus… Hmmm. And then he and Aemilia did the same with their identical servants, naming them both Dromio. Also, Aemilia (the Abbess) claims to have lived in Ephesus for 33 years but never once laid eyes on Antipholus E or Dromio E. I suppose we are to believe that she was confined to the Abbey. Finally, how is it possible that when the two sets of identical twins finally all arrive together in Ephesus for the first time in 33 years they are dressed identically as well. The answer lies in what was permitted in a 16th century farce and is rather what makes it so farcical.

Much is often made of how the two Antipholus twins seem far less interested in each other compared to the two Dromios, who end the play arm in arm and very much pleased and enchanted. Perhaps, Antipholus of Ephesus simply wants to mend affairs with his wife and the town in general and Antipholus of Syracuse wants to court Luciana. Then again, Shakespeare usually does depict his servants, clowns and fools in a better light than their more socially advanced counterparts. Think of the fool in King Lear.

The very end of this play warms us dearly, with the two Dromios, who have endured numerous blows from their masters, happily departing the stage hand in hand. The fragile but ultimately resilient nature of family bonds is a regular theme in Shakespeare’s comedies. Not so the tragedies. The reason this play works so well as a farce is that we, the audience, know what the characters on stage do not know (that there are two sets of identical twins afoot), which allows for the madcap farce and the Act V resolution.

This is a fun play for audiences but maddening for the characters, as every aspect of their lives is plunged into chaos. And in the unraveling of the complex errors there is even a surprise ending for us, the audience, when we learn that the Abbess is Aegeon’s wife and mother to his two sons. In the end there never was any magic, madness or lasting malice in Ephesus. It was all simply mistaken identities. The pace of farce is essential and The Comedy of Errors is lauded for its timing, alternating swiftly between pathos and comedy.

Indeed, this is still a very apprentice work by Shakespeare and in mastery of action and stagecraft it far outshines anything he had done up to that point. The outwardly identical Antipholus’ are quite different on the inside. The Syracusian is on a Homeric type quest to find his brother and despite the apparent madnesses he pretty much takes things as they come. The Ephesian Antipholus becomes more and more angry, as everything about his life in Ephesus is turned upside down, including his marriage and very identity. Even the Dromios are internally distinct. The Syracusian never loses his good cheer, responding to the apparent madness with ironic delight rather than anger or terror. The Ephesian is a more hard edged and cynical Dromio and his tongue is sharper.

The Comedy of Errors is a fireworks show of slapstick violence and surreal misunderstandings and is funniest seen live and played seriously. Shakespeare is a master of developing characters and by letting these comedy of errors loose on these characters we can sit back and be amused by the antics and predicaments of believable people caught up in situations which make them question both their individual identities as well as their sanity. Well done, Mr Shakespeare. This is one heck of a first attempt at farce.

The Comedy of Errors was first staged on 28 December 1594 as part of the end of term revels by law students at Gray’s Inn in London, an event so riotous that older faculty left in disgust. The play was revived infrequently until the 20th century, when it was very much resurrected, right up to the present, where it is quite frequently staged to great applause. Check out youtube for full plays and films of The Comedy of Errors. There are several very acceptable options to choose from that deserves to be seen and not simply read.