Perhaps the most comedic of all the Shakespeare plays, The Comedy of Errors, verges on farce with its confused identities, slapstick violence, and confused intentions. This play vociferously demands Coleridges willing suspension of disbelief. As comedy, it resists analysis beyond its structure. Perhaps Mark Twains admonition preceding The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is relevant here: Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors is the slapstick farce of his youth. In it, the lost twin sons of the old merchant Egeon-both named Antipholus-find themselves in Ephesus, without either one even knowing of the other's existence. Meanwhile, Egeon has arrived in search of the son he thinks is still alive-and has been sentenced to death for the "crime" of being from Syracuse. To add to the confusion, the two Antipholuses have twin servants, both named Dromio. As the four men unwittingly encounter each other, the play is crammed with wildly escalating misunderstandings before the truth emerges and Egeon is pardoned. Shakespeare bases his story on Plautus's Menaechmi, a play about identical twins who accidentally meet after a lifetime apart. He borrows from another Plautus play by having Adriana, the wife of one Antipholus, entertain the other. The spirited Adriana often gives speeches evoking strong emotions-as do other characters at times. Even here, Shakespeare suggests complexities beyond the farce.
The Comedy of Errors is probably the most complicated of all Shakespeare's plays, involving two sets of identical twins with multiple identity confusions. It begins with a Syracuse merchant, Egeon, being led to his execution for defying the ban against travel between Syracuse and Ephesus. As he is taken to the gallows he tells Duke Solinus, the Ephesian ruler, that he has come in search of his wife and one of his twin sons, who were lost twenty-five years before in a shipwreck. The other twin is also searching for his mother and brother. The Duke feels sorry for Egeon and gives him a day's stay of execution, to allow him to raise the ransom that would save his life. What Egeon doesn't know is that the son he has raised, Antipholus, and his slave, Dromio, have also arrived in Ephesus and that the missing son lives in Ephesus and has become a prosperous man, involved in the civic life of the city. He is well-known as Antipholus of Ephesus. He also has a slave, called Dromio who is the identical twin brother of Dromio of Syracuse. They had been separated at birth. Antipholus of Ephesus's wife, Adriana, encounters Antipholus of Syracuse and mistakes him for her husband. She insists that he go home with her to dinner. He leaves his slave to guard the door, and when Antipholus of Ephesus comes home, Dromio of Syracuse refuses him entry to the house.
The acclaimed Pelican Shakespeare series edited by A. R. Braunmuller and Stephen Orgel The legendary Pelican Shakespeare series features authoritative and meticulously researched texts paired with scholarship by renowned Shakespeareans. Each book includes an essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare’s time, an introduction to the individual play, and a detailed note on the text used. Updated by general editors Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller, these easy-to-read editions incorporate over thirty years of Shakespeare scholarship undertaken since the original series, edited by Alfred Harbage, appeared between 1956 and 1967. With definitive texts and illuminating essays, the Pelican Shakespeare will remain a valued resource for students, teachers, and theater professionals for many years to come. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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 humor coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and wordplay. 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.
(Applause Books). If there has ever been a groundbreaking edition that likewise returns the reader to the original Shakespeare text, it will be THE APPLAUSE FOLIO TEXTS. If there has ever been an accessible version of the Folio, it is this edition, set for the first time in modern fonts. The Folio is the source of all other editions. The Folio text forces us to re-examine the assumptions and prejudices which have encumbered over four hundred years of scholarship and performance. Notes refer the reader to subsequent editorial interventions, and offer the reader a multiplicity of interpretations. Notes also advise the reader on variations between Folios and Quartos. Prepared and annotated by Neil Freeman, Head, Graduate Directing Program, University of British Columbia.
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 is, along with The Tempest, one of only two Shakespeare plays to observe the Aristotelian principle of unity of time-that is, that the events of a play should occur over 24 hours. It has been adapted for opera, stage, screen and musical theatre numerous times worldwide. In the centuries following its premiere, the play's title has entered the popular English lexicon as an idiom for "an event or series of events made ridiculous by the number of errors that were made throughout"
Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors is the slapstick farce of his youth. In it, the lost twin sons of the old merchant Egeon--both named Antipholus--find themselves in Ephesus, without either one even knowing of the other's existence. Meanwhile, Egeon has arrived in search of the son he thinks is still alive--and has been sentenced to death for the "crime" of being from Syracuse.
