The Comedy of Errors Read online

  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
tatutes severe laws (literally, legal documents) 11 mortal deadly

  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
ld communicated/tolled (i.e. struck)

  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