Comedy of Errors
Written: c. 1594; Text: First Folio 1623 (Comedy), no quarto editions
Source: Menaechmi and Amphitruo by Plautus.
Characters: Antipholus of Syracuse, Adriana, Antipholus of Ephesus, Dromio of Syracuse, Egeon, Dromio of Ephesus, Luciana, Solinus
Setting: Ephesus
Time: Undetermined
Since translations of Plautus's plays do not appear until after the writing of Comedy of Errors, it is assumed that Shakespeare worked from the original Latin, which he probably read while at school. This play is diverse in its metrical styles, which is notable in Plautus's plays. Shakespeare heightened the farcical qualities of the Plautus plays by using two sets of twins. He also elevated its serious quality by adding the Aegeon subplot, which opens the play with tragedy and ends it happily. Shakespeare wrote a variation of this ending for Pericles Prince of Tyre.
Notes on Comedy of Errors
Keeping Adultery Hidden
Read the NoteWhether in comedy or tragedy, Shakespeare’s characters advise the prudence of spouses, whether husbands or wives, of keeping their dalliances hidden. Luciano advises the man she thinks is her brother-in-law in Comedy of Errors to tell his wife, Luciano’s sister, nothing. Iago’s observation about the adulteries of Venetian women in Othello, is similar.
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Quotes from Comedy of Errors
He that commends me to mine own content
Read the QuoteHe that commends me to mine own content,
Commends me to the thing I cannot get:
I to the world am like a drop of water,
That in the ocean seeks another drop,
Who, falling there to find his fellow forth
(Unseen, inquisitive), confounds himself.Simile
So I, to find a mother and a brother,
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A man is master of his liberty
Read the QuoteA man is master of his liberty:
Time is their master, and when they see time,
They’ll go or come.
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Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season
Read the QuoteWas there ever any man thus beaten out of season,
When in the why and the whereforeAlliteration is neither rhyme nor reason?Alliteration
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It is thyself, mine own self’s better part
Read the QuoteIt is thyself, mine own self’s better part:
Mine eye’s clear eye, my dear heart’s dearer heart,Anaphora and Antanaclasis
My food, my fortune, and my sweet hope’s aim,
My sole earth’s heaven, and my heaven’s claim.Anaphora and Anadiplosis
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Marry, sir, by a rule as plain as the plain bald pate of Father Time
Read the QuoteDromio of Syracuse
Marry, sir, by a rule as plain as the plain bald pate of Father Time himself.
Antipholus of Syracuse
Let’s hear it.
Dromio of Syracuse
There’s no time for a man to recover his hair that grows bald by nature.
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The time was once, when thou unurg’d wouldst vow
Read the QuoteThe time was onceHyperbaton when thou unurged wouldst vowAnastrophe
That never words were music to thine ear,
That never object pleasing in thine eye,
That never touch well welcome to thy hand,
That never meat sweet-savored in thy taste,Anaphora
Unless I spake, or looked,
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But here’s a villain that would face me down
Read the QuoteAntipholus Of Ephesus
But here’s a villain that would face me down
He met me on the mart, and that I beat him
And charged him with a thousand marks in gold,
And that I did deny my wife and house.—
Thou drunkard, thou, what didst thou mean by this?
Dromio of Ephesus
Say what you will,
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Go, fetch me something. I’ll break ope the gate.
Read the QuoteAntipholus of Ephesus
Go, fetch me something. I’ll break ope the gate.
Dromio of Syracuse, within
Break any breaking here, and I’ll break your knave’s pate.
Dromio of Ephesus
A man may break a word with you, sir, and words are but wind,
Ay, and break it in your face,
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And may it be that you have quite forgot
Read the QuoteAnd may it be that you have quite forgot
A husband’s office? Shall, Antipholus,
Even in the spring of love thy love-springs rot?
Shall love, in building, grow so ruinous?
If you did wed my sister for her wealth,
Then for her wealth’s sake use her with more kindness.
Or if you like elsewhere, do it by stealth —
Muffle your false love with some show of blindness.
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Or if you like elsewhere, do it by stealth
Read the QuoteOr if you like elsewhere, do it by stealth,
Muffle your false love with some show of blindness:
Let not my sister read it in your eyeHyperbaton;
Be not thy tongue thy own shame’s oratorHyperbaton and Synecdoche:
Look sweet, speak fair, become disloyaltyTricolon Parallelism;
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