The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
25. Howard Taubman, "Syracuse Boys," New York Times, 13 June 1963.
26. Dunbar H. Ogden, Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. XIV, No. 4 (Autumn 1963), pp. 437-38.
27. Robert Smallwood, Shakespeare Survey 53 (2000), pp. 261-62.
28. Smallwood, Shakespeare Survey 53, pp. 261-62.
29. Dennis Harvey, Variety, No. 7 (3-9 April 2000), p. 58.
30. John Pettigrew, Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d'etudes canadiennes, Vol. XI, No. 1 (February 1976), pp. 55-56.
31. Mel Gussow, New York Times' Theater Review, 1 June 1987 (discussing the 1987 New York revival).
32. Albert E. Karlson, "Shakespeare Meets the Karamazovs," Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 (Summer 1983), pp. 227-28.
33. Alastair Macaulay, Financial Times, 13 May 1998.
34. Leanne B. French, "It's da Bomb," Entertainment Design 34, No. 5 (May 2000), pp. 8-9.
35. Alvin Klein, New York Times, 24 June 2001.
36. Alvin Klein, New York Times, 24 June 2001d.
37. Bruce Weber, "Making an Exotic Circus of a Shakespearean Farce," New York Times, 12 July 2002, pp. B2, E2.
38. Weber, "Making an Exotic Circus of a Shakespearean Farce."
39. Toby O'Connor Morse, Independent, 16 October 2003.
40. Alfred Hickling, Guardian, 25 February 2005.
41. Sam Marlowe, The Times, London, 25 February 2005.
42. Ian Hughes on playing Dromio of Syracuse in Players of Shakespeare 5, ed. Robert Smallwood (2003), pp. 29-42, (p. 30).
43. Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph, 29 July 2005.
44. Colin Chambers, Inside the Royal Shakespeare Company (2004), pp. 22-23.
45. Kenneth Tynan, Observer, 16 September 1962.
46. Chambers, Inside the Royal Shakespeare Company, p. 22.
47. Michael Billington, Guardian, 21 June 1972.
48. Harold Hobson, Sunday Times, 16 September 1962.
49. Billington, Guardian, 21 June 1972.
50. Birmingham Mail, 16 September 1962.
51. Irving Wardle, The Times, London, 30 September 1976.
52. Peter Holland, English Shakespeares (1997), p. 58.
53. Sarah Chappell, Spalding Guardian, 25 September 1996.
54. Charles Spencer, Telegraph, 25 April 2000.
55. Spencer, Telegraph, 25 April 2000.
56. Michael Billington, Guardian, 29 July 2005.
57. Billington, Guardian, 29 July 2005.
58. Cavendish, Daily Telegraph, 29 July 2005.
59. Benedict Nightingale, The Times, London, 29 July 2005.
60. Victoria Segal, Sunday Times, 7 July 2005.
61. Ian Hughes, in Smallwood, Players of Shakespeare 5, p. 42.
62. Cavendish, Daily Telegraph, 29 July 2005.
63. Holland, English Shakespeares, p. 59.
64. Holland, English Shakespeares, p. 62.
65. Wardle, The Times, 30 September 1976.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND
PICTURE CREDITS
Preparation of "The Comedy of Errors in Performance" was assisted by a generous grant from the CAPITAL Centre (Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning) of the University of Warwick for research in the RSC archive at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
The second half of the introduction ("Farce, Comedy. and Identity: The Critics Debate") draws extensively on a longer overview of the play's critical history prepared for us by Sarah Carter.
Thanks as always to our indefatigable and eagle-eyed copy editor Tracey Day and to Ray Addicott for overseeing the production process with rigor and calmness.
Picture research by Michelle Morton. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust for assistance with picture research (special thanks to Helen Hargest) and reproduction fees.
Images of RSC productions are supplied by the Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive, Stratford-upon-Avon. This library, maintained by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, holds the most important collection of Shakespeare material in the UK, including the Royal Shakespeare Company's official archive. It is open to the public free of charge.
For more information see www.shakespeare.org.uk.
1. Charles and Harry Webb (1864) Reproduced by permission of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust 2. Directed by Theodore Komisarjevsky (1938) Ernest Daniels (c) Royal Shakespeare Company 3. Directed by Clifford Willams (1962) Joe Cocks Studio Collection (c) Shakespeare Birthplace Trust 4. Directed by Trevor Nunn (1976) Joe Cocks Studio Collection (c) Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
5. Directed by Adrian Noble (1983) Joe Cocks Studio Collection (c) Shakespeare Birthplace Trust 6. Directed by Lynne Parker (2000) Mark Hall (c) Royal Shakespeare Company
7. Directed by Nancy Meckler (2005) Ellie Kurttz (c) Royal Shakespeare Company 8. Directed by Paul Hunter (2009) Ellie Kurttz (c) Royal Shakespeare Company
9. Directed by Tim Supple (1996) Malcolm Davies (c) Shakespeare Birthplace Trust 10. Reconstructed Elizabethan Playhouse (c) Charcoalblue
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List of Parts
bondsmen slaves
Act 1 Scene 1
1.1 Location: Ephesus. This is the location for the whole play. Most of the action takes places outdoors in public, in or near the market ("mart")
1.1 Ephesus Ionian city, now part of Turkey 1.1 Syracuse city in Sicily 2 doom sentence
4 partial inclined
6 rancorous outrage bitter wrongdoing
7 well-dealing civil, honest
8 wanting lacking
8 guilders silver coins
8 redeem ransom
9 sealed certified (as if their bloods were sealing wax) 9 rigorous s
11 intestine internal
11 jars conflicts
12 seditious turbulent
13 synods assemblies
15 traffic to trade between
15 adverse hostile
17 marts markets
20 to at
20 dispose disposal
21 marks coins, each worth two thirds of a pound
21 levied raised
22 quit pay
23 substance possessions
31 heavier more sorrowful
32 I for me
33 that so that
34 wrought by nature brought about by natural affection 35 gives me leave permits me to
37 but only
38 by ... bad would have been happy with me had we not suffered misfortune 41 Epidamium Epidamnus, port on the coast of Illyricum; now Durres in Albania 41 factor's agent's
42 at random unattended
43 embracements embraces
46 pleasing punishment i.e. pregnancy
54 mean lowly, humble
56 for because
57 attend serve/accompany
58 meanly a little
59 motions urgings
61 league about three miles
62 deep sea
63 instance suggestion
67 doubtful warrant dreadful assurance
70 before for in the face of
71 plainings wailing
72 for fashion as is customary
73 delays i.e. from death
74 it was is what happened
75 boat the ship's lifeboat
76 sinking-ripe ready to sink
77 careful concerned
77 latter-born youngest
81 like equally
83 whom him/those on whom
84 the of the
85 straight immediately
85 stream current
86 Corinth Greek city
88 vapours clouds
88 offended assailed
89 benefit help
91 amain swiftly
92 Epidaurus probably a port on the Adriatic coast, just south of Dubrovnik (then Illyria, now Croatia), though there was another Epidaurus (famous for its amphitheater) in Greece 93 ere before
94 that that which
95 forward proceed
98 Worthily deservedly
99 meet by come within
99 twice five leagues about thirty miles
105 What something
111 seized on us took hold of us/hauled us up
112 hap chance
114 reft ... prey deprived the fishermen of their catch 115 bark small ship
121 dilate relate
122 befall'n of happened to
123 eldest longest
125 After about
125 importuned begged
126 attendant i.e. one of the twins of humbler birth 126 like the same
127 Reft ... name deprived of his brother, but retaining his sibling's name 128 of for
129 laboured ... love longed
130 hazarded ... loved i.e. risked losing my younger son 132 clean completely
132 bounds territories
133 coasting traveling along the coast
135 Or either
138 travels also "travails" (efforts, pains)
138 warrant guarantee
139 Hapless unlucky
143 would they even if they wanted to
143 disannul abolish
144 sue plead, petition
145 adjudged condemned
147 But to except at the cost of
147 disparagement disgrace
149 limit allow
150 health i.e. life, well-being
156 wend go, direct himself
157 procrastinate postpone
Act 1 Scene 2
1.2 Antipholus from the Greek anti +philia ("opposing love"); Folio entry direction calls him "Antipholis Erotes" (suggesting Latin erratus, "wanderer"/Erotes, "love gods, cupids") 1.2 Dromio Greek for "runner"
1 give out say
5 buy out ransom
8 to keep in my keeping
9 the Centaur an inn
9 host lodge
11 dinner-time i.e. about noon
12 manners habits, nature
13 Peruse observe
18 mean opportunity/means (i.e. the money)
19 villain servant/rogue
19 oft often
20 care cares, troubles
21 humour mood (one of the four bodily "humors" that governed the disposition) 25 benefit profit
26 Soon at at about/promptly at
28 consort accompany
32 content pleasure, enjoyment
37 find ... forth discover his companion (some editors emend falling to "failing") 38 Unseen unknown/inexperienced
38 confounds becomes indistinguishable to/destroys/loses 40 unhappy illfated
41 almanac ... date as they were born at the same time, Dromio is a living calendar for Antipholus to judge his age by 44 capon castrated cockerel (a common dish)
46 made it one i.e. struck him
47 hot angry
49 stomach appetite
50 broke your fast had breakfast
51 fast and pray acts of penitence
52 penitent repentant/fasting
52 default offense
53 Stop ... wind hold your breath, shut up
55 o' on
56 crupper leather strap on a horse's saddle
58 sportive merry
61 charge responsibility
61 from ... custody out of your own keeping
63 post haste
64 post beaten, like a tavern doorpost on which accounts were marked 65 score engrave/count
65 pate head
66 maw stomach
68 out of season irrelevant/inappropriate
72 have done end
73 charge responsibility, task
75 the Phoenix the name of Antipholus' house or sign of his shop 76 stays wait
79 sconce head
80 stands insists
80 undisposed not in the mood
85 those i.e. the beatings
90 hie hasten
94 an if
94 take take to
95 device scheme
96 o'er-raught cheated
97 cozenage trickery
98 As such as
98 jugglers illusionists, tricksters
99 Dark-working secretive/with the power to create darkness 100 deform transform/harm
101 prating mountebanks swift-talking quacks
102 liberties of sin unrestrained, dissolute sinners (some editors emend to "libertines") Act 2 Scene 1
2.1 Adriana the name means "dark one," suggesting she may be brunette 2.1 Antipholus [of Ephesus] Folio entry direction calls him "Antipholis Sereptus" (from Latin surreptus, "stolen away") 2.1 Luciana the name means "light one," suggesting she may be blond 2 slave servant/rascal
3 Sure surely
8 see time see fit
11 still always
12 when whenever
12 serve treat
12 ill badly
15 lashed whipped/harnessed
16 situate situated
17 bound limit
19 at their controls under their control
20 more divine closer to God in the order of being
25 attend ... accords serve their wishes/wait on their consent 28 bear some sway wield some power
30 start ... where wander elsewhere (i.e. have an affair) 31 forbear be patient
32 No ... pause no wonder she hesitates to marry
33 other cause reason to behave otherwise
36 like the same
39 helpless useless
40 like right bereft yourself deprived of similar rights 41 fool-begged foolish
41 left abandoned
42 but to try just to see what it's like
46 two ears refers to his earlier beating
49 to
50 Beshrew curse
51 doubtfully ambiguously (Dromio shifts the sense to "dreadfully") 55 understand comprehend/endure ("stand under")
58 horn-mad furious (like a horned beast)
60 cuckold-mad enraged like a husband with an unfaithful wife; such men were popularly imagined to grow horns 68 Hang up hang
69 out on expression of indignant contempt
73 my ... shoulders the message I should have delivered verbally he made me return with on my shoulders (as a beating) 77 new freshly
80 bless puns on the sense of "wound" (from French: "blesser") 81 holy blessed/full of holes
82 peasant servant (contemptuous)
83 round outspoken/spherical
84 spurn kick/treat contemptuously
86 last plays on sense of "wooden mold of a foot used for making shoes"
86 leather i.e. like a football (or shoe) 87 loureth scowls
88 His i.e. Antipholus'
88 do ... grace give pleasure to his sweethearts
90 homely plain
91 wasted withered/squandered
92 discourses conversations
92 wit intelligence
93 voluble articulate
93 marred ruined
94 than marble hard than even hard marble would
95 their i.e. the minions'
95 gay vestments pretty, bright outfits
95 bait ensnare (plays on "bate"--i.e. "reduce" the force of his love for Adriana) 96 state estate, appearance
98 By ... ruined that he is not responsible for
98 ground cause
99 defeatures waning attractions
99 fair beauty
101 deer puns on "dear"
101 pale boundaries
102 feeds from home satisfies his appetites elsewhere 102 stale laughingstock/prostitute
104 Unfeeling fools only insensitive fools
105 doth homage otherwhere admires another woman
106 lets prevents
108 Would ... detain a heavily disputed line, variously emended to "alone o' love," "alone, alone," or "alone, alas"; the gist seems to be "I had rather he would withhold the gift (chain) and remain faithful"
109 So as long as
109 keep ... bed i.e. remain faithful
110 jewel best enamelled even the most beautifully enameled ornament (or woman) 111 bides still lasts forever (like a true wife)
112 touch the quality of gold was tested by rubbing it against a touchstone (plays on sense of "fondle sexually") 113 Wear wear away (may also play on the idea of using up one's money on mistresses or whores) 113 name reputation
117 fond doting/foolish
Act 2 Scene 2
2 heedful attentive/careful
3 in care conscientiously
4 By ... report by working out my whereabouts based on the inkeeper's information 5 could not speak have not spoken
8 strokes blows
13 spake I did I speak
17 the gold's receipt receiving the gold
19 felt'st understood/physically experienced
20 vein mood
22 in the teeth to my face
24 earnest genuine (plays on the financial sense of "deposit laid to secure a bargain") 27 for as
27 fool companion/jester
28 sauciness insolence
28 jest upon trifle with