82 See Parker, ‘Bible’, 60.
83 For Evanthius’ ‘On drama’ and Donatus’ ‘On comedy’, see Preminger et al., 301– 9; also Baldwin, Structure, 28 –52; Herrick, Theory, 58 – 60, 106 –29. See also n. 1.
84 See Baldwin, Structure, 34 – 44; Burrow, 140 –1.
85 Shakespearean comedies, according to Ghose, raise pertinent social issues and employ differing perspectives but leave ‘didactic import’ unclear (122; see 117–23).
86 See Martin, lx.
87 See Bishop, esp. 73.
88 See Bishop, 88 – 92.
89 Errors’s Abbess and Hermione in The Winter’s Tale are the only figures in Shakespeare believed dead by other characters and the audience until they re-emerge in the denouement.
90 Wright, Metrical, 95.
91 Smith, Acoustic, 207– 8; see 206 – 45.
92 Spevack, 1.361; TxC, 96. Spevack separates out 22 split lines; those are treated here as verse; cf. TxC, 96, whose verse numbers derive from Chambers, ES, 2, App. H. Errors’s high quotient of verse lines compares closely with percentages for The Taming of the Shrew (82%), 2 Henry VI (84%), Romeo and Juliet (87%) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (80%). The high degree of rhyming verse underscores Errors’s connections to Romeo and Juliet (18% of whose verse lines rhyme) and Richard II (19%); see Chambers, ES, 2.398. For comparison, 52% of Dream’s verse lines rhyme, as do 66% of Love’s Labour’s Lost’s (Chambers, ES, 2.398).
93 In a pentameter line, stresses will vary in emphasis; often four syllables are noticeably stressed, as in the first line here, where ‘to’ would be stressed lightly, at best. The fewer the heavy stresses, the more a line invites speed in delivery.
94 Adherence of a speaker’s style to the form of a scene constitutes the ‘law of dominant mood’ (Vickers, Artistry, 8).
95 O’Donnell, 407; see 403 – 8.
96 Syncopation of the unstressed medial vowel in ‘nativity’ retains 404 as pentameter; full syllabification would make it hexameter.
97 An alternative scansion would be to treat the last six syllables as two anapaestic feet (see O’Donnell, 405), although the phrase’s second iteration would again call for increased emphasis. The parallel ‘what’ constructions link the line’s two halves and sharpen the opposition: what Antipholus says; what Dromio knows.
98 On that alternative narrative, see Miola, Comedy, 24 –5.
99 The line is inferred by editors: in F, 60 and 61 are printed as one improbably long heptameter line.
100 Shakespeare also sometimes uses short lines to end long speeches (Bowers, 78).
101 Gascoigne, ‘Notes’, 164, 168. Likewise, Aristotle, in Poetics, had defended the ‘lengthenings, abbreviations and alternations of words’ in drama for the production of ‘heightened effect’ (57). Elizabethan poetic thinkers considered ‘meter as a pattern artificially imposed on the words’ (Berry, ‘Prosodies’, 117).
102 See Wright, Metrical, 149 –59. Errors has comparatively high instances of disyllabic -ion and stressed -ed (Tarlinskaja, 28, 135).
103 See Stern, Rehearsal, 61–76.
104 See Wright, Metrical, 160 – 84.
105 See Miola, Comedy.
106 Traill argues that Errors 2.1, the marriage debate between Luciana and Adriana, shows the influence of a related scene (2.2) in Plautus’ Casina; she also finds other correspondences.
107 See Baldwin, Structure, 667– 9. On Shakespeare’s grammar-school training, see Baldwin, Small Latine; also Riehle.
108 See 62 – 3. Baldwin argues that Errors reflects Shakespeare’s acquaintance with Dionysius Lambinus’s 1576 edition of Plautus, whose marginal commentary to Menaechmi identifies instances of error by characters; see Structure, 667– 81, 691– 4. Riehle sees insufficient evidence that Shakespeare used Lambinus (90); Miola accepts Baldwin’s position (Comedy, 21).
109 For verbal comparisons, see Foakes, xxv–xxvi; Riehle, 279 – 83; Var., 307.
110 Riehle’s argument that Shakespeare used Warner rests largely on inconclusive tonal and thematic matters.
111 On the scholarly consensus for this position, see Miola, ‘Play’, 4 –10.
112 On intertextuality, see Miola, ‘Intertextuality’, and Marrapodi, 1–2.
113 On the relationship between Shakespeare and Plautus, see Miola, Comedy, and Riehle.
114 On Plautine metatheatre and improvisation, see Slater, esp. 1–14.
115 Menaechmi’s action contains seven distinct errors or misrecognitions and follows the classic stages of exposition, complication, reversal, resolution and recognition (see Gratwick, 16 –30).
116 Rouse counts fifty instances of error in Errors, against the seventeen he sees in Menaechmi (xiv). Notwithstanding, in a complex action in which one character can experience the same confusion repeatedly, what counts as an error becomes murky.
117 Robert Hornback sees such effects as especially typical of Terence (private conversation, 1 July 2013).
118 Miola calls Amphitruo one of Plautus’ ‘errors plays’ (Comedy, 18); Whitworth sees its farcicality as influencing Errors (25 –7).
119 The parallel may extend to Errors’s reiteration of ‘face’ and ‘name’ (Whitworth, 26).
120 On error in classical comedy, see Riehle, 102– 4, and Salingar, 76 –128.
121 See Miola, Comedy, 1–18; Herrick, Italian Comedy; Clubb, Italian Drama; Clubb, Pollastra.
122 See Lawrence, 118 –76.
123 On the history of the Apollonius tale, see Archibald.
124 Names in this summary follow those in Twine.
125 Twine’s name for Apollonius’ wife, Lucina, perhaps influenced Shakespeare’s naming of the sister in Errors as Luciana (see List of Roles, 8n.).
126 Line numbers here refer to excerpts in Bullough, 1.50 – 4.
127 See Whitworth, 224.
128 See e.g. 4.2.32– 40n., 34n., 37n., on shoulder-clapper, 37n., on countermands, 40nn.
129 See 4.2.34n.; 4.3.17–18n., 23n.
130 See Williams, ‘Correcting’; Cartwright, ‘Staging’; Ichikawa, ‘Staging’.
131 For a debate on the nature of Elizabethan stage entryways, see Gurr, ‘Stage doors’; Fitzpatrick & Millyard; Gurr, ‘Gulf’; Gurr & Egan.
132 The multiple references to ‘door’ and ‘gate’ argue that a real wooden door is indicated. Antipholus’ ‘my door is locked’ (3.1.30) suggests that he tries the door, even rattles it. Later Ephesian Dromio encourages him to ‘knock the door hard’ (58).
133 The Comedy of Errors at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC, in 2005 did exactly that, to great comic effect.
134 See Hotson, 69, 76 –7; also Dessen, 176 – 95.
135 Gurr argues that early stages such as the first Globe and the Rose had central openings that were probably fitted with hinges that allowed doors to be lifted in or out (‘Stage doors’). Such a central opening with doors was used effectively as the entrance to the Phoenix in the 2006 Errors at Shakespeare’s Globe in London.
136 On how actors onstage and backstage were able to hear each other’s dialogue and cues, see Stern, ‘Arras’.
137 See Ichikawa, Entrances.
138 On ‘within’ as a SD, see Dessen, 72–3, 238 – 9; Ichikawa, ‘Acting’, 126 –34. Ichikawa provides evidence for ‘within’ used in relation to offstage speech, probably sometimes from the upper level, and she demonstrates that some characters located ‘within’ may be fleetingly visible to the audience.
139 If Luce is
the same character as Nell the kitchen wench, an entrance on the lower stage level conforms to her place in the household.
140 Shakespeare pointedly names Luce (at 49) after her first speech, and Syracusan Dromio repeats the name (at 53), so that spectators could associate her voice with a name.
141 The Gunner has earlier described the grate: ‘a secret grate of iron bars’ (1H6 1.4.10); for commentary on staging this scene, see Burns, 1.4.10n., 21.1n. and 59n. Burns locates the action on the balcony.
142 See Dessen, 55 – 9; Dessen & Thomson, 104.
143 See e.g. Ichikawa ‘Acting’, 136 – 8.
144 ‘Hatch’ is used to refer to the lower half of a divided door in KJ 1.1.171, 5.2.138; MW 2.2.19; KL 3.6.73.
145 The interchangeability of ‘gate’ for ‘door’ is also suggestive, for ‘gate’ can denote ‘a framework of wood or iron’ with ‘bars or ‘gratings’ (OED gate n.1 6a) – in effect a grille. Shakespeare employs such an image of ‘gates of steel’ in Son 65.8.
146 Ichikawa prefers this location for Adriana (see ‘Staging’, 10 –11).
147 Adriana and Syracusan Antipholus are sometimes visible dining above at the beginning of the scene, turning Ephesian Antipholus’ comments about the insufficiency of his fare for his dinner guests into delicious irony.
148 Productions at the American Shakespeare Center in 2005 and Shakespeare’s Globe in London in 2006 located the inside characters – Syracusan Dromio, Luce and Adriana – on the balcony, imagined as ‘within’, while the outsiders shouted towards the doorway below. That approach puts the opposing sets of characters onstage simultaneously and makes them visible to the audience, but it also creates distance between the insiders and outsiders and forces character groups to direct their lines away from each other. In the Globe production, the two Dromios used a speaking tube running from the doorway to the upstairs level, such that when one Dromio yanked the tube, the other was jerked forward.
149 For an appreciative view, see Hartley, 168 –74.
150 On Strange’s Men and Pembroke’s Men, see Gurr, Companies, 258 –77.
151 The Chamberlain’s Men subsequently played at the Curtain, near the Theatre, after 1597 when their lease on the Theatre expired.
152 On Holland and Jeffes, see Gurr, Company, 231. On Sinkler, see Gurr, Company, 241; Gurr, Companies, 72–3; Marino.
153 See 5.1.295n. and 337n., on ghost; on doubling, see Appendix 3.
154 Foster bases this claim on computer analysis of words from the role that reappear in Shakespeare’s plays subsequently to a degree disproportionately high in comparison to words from the play’s other roles. According to tradition, Shakespeare performed Adam in As You Like It and the Ghost in Hamlet. Foster argues that Shakespeare also played the Chorus and the Friar in Romeo and Juliet, King Henry (after 1596) in 1 Henry IV, King Henry (after 1598) in 2 Henry IV, Brabantio (after 1604) in Othello and Albany (after 1605) in King Lear. The list, if correct, suggests that Shakespeare specialized in older characters. Egeon constitutes the play’s most poignant, least comic, figure; he is also a storyteller.
155 See Chambers, ES, 4.56, 164 –5.
156 See Nelson & Elliott, 2.364.
157 On the 28 December Gray’s Inn festivities and Errors, see Henning, Var., 519 –24.
158 On affinities between Errors and the revels, see Rhatigan.
159 Booths would have crowded the stage and compromised sight lines for spectators. They were probably not part of the scheme for the evening’s earlier entertainments and thus would have required setting up immediately before Errors commenced, a disruption that would hardly have been permitted.
160 From Guilpin’s Skialetheia, recorded in the Stationers’ Register on September 1598; Knutson, 62.
161 The identification of ‘one of Plautus Comedies’ as Errors is strengthened by Manningham’s subsequent likening of Errors to Menaechmi and suggests the comparative and generic perspective that certain spectators might have brought to the play.
162 See Henning, Var., 524.
163 In The Advancement of Learning (1605), Bacon refers to ‘some comedies of errors, wherein the mistress and the maid change habits’ (Bacon, 247). The mismatch between his example and Errors’s plot suggests the degree to which Shakespeare’s title had become a generic term.
164 Sillars, 11. The illustration was designed by François Boitard and engraved by Elisha Kirkall. On the frontispiece, see Sillars, 13 –17.
165 Sillars argues reasonably that the kneeling figure is the Abbess, given her gown, suggestive of a nun’s habit (14), although the play specifies that Adriana kneels before the Duke (see 5.1.129).
166 On the play’s adaptability and its history of productions, see Miola, ‘Play’, 28 –37; see also Ford.
167 See Evans, 3.1.3 –12; Shattuck, 67; Var., 525.
168 See Hogan, 1.98, 99; Var., 539; Odell, Shakespeare, 1.228.
169 See Odell, Shakespeare, 2.48. In 1780 the Theatre Royal in Edinburgh saw a three-act farcical version of Errors, called The Twins, or Which is Which, by W. Woods, and in 1786, Vienna enjoyed an operatic adaptation, Gli Equivoci, in the spirit of opera buffa, by Stephen Storace (a friend of Mozart), with libretto by the famed Lorenzo Da Ponte (Dean, 94, 100).
170 See Odell, Shakespeare, 2.131–5.
171 See Var., 526; Odell, Annals, 2.204.
172 See Speaight, Poel, 109 –10; Shaw, 1.269, 275.
173 On Komisarjevsky as a director of Shakespeare, see Berry, ‘Komisarjevsky’.
174 Berry, ‘Komisarjevsky’, 81; see 81–2; see also Kennedy, 131–2.
175 Ivor Brown, Observer, 17 April 1938, quoted in Berry, ‘Komisarjevsky’, 82.
176 As indicated, for example, by revivals in New York in 1963, 1997 and 2002, London productions in 1963 and 1991, a rollicking version at Baltimore’s CenterStage in 2006 –7, a semi-staging by the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC, in 2011, and a Singapore production in 2012. In 1940, it was made into a now-dated movie starring Allan Jones, Irene Hervey and Martha Raye.
177 Dash, 48, 2; on Boys’ relationship to Errors, see Dash, 10 – 48; the comments here draw substantially from Dash’s discussion.
178 As Ford points out, the ‘Williams production’ actually went through re-stagings in 1963, 1964 (for television) and 1972 (15 –16).
179 Speaight, ‘Williams’, 485; Billington, 487.
180 Emerson, 498; see also Warren.
181 See also Smallwood, 215 –19.
182 See Rutter, 457– 8.
183 On Errors in Germany, see Walch; for Japan, see Milward; and on a 1983 Errors in Stockholm with political implications, see Ring.
184 See Burt, 2.767.
185 On film adaptations, see Burt, 1.144 –7.
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
EGEON, Merchant of Syracuse
father to the Antipholuses and husband to the Abbess, though separated from all
Solinus, DUKE of Ephesus
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
twin brothers, sons to the
Merchant of Syracuse and the
Abbess but unknown to each other
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
twin brothers, slaves to the
5
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
two Antipholuses
ADRIANA
wife to Antipholus of Ephesus
LUCIANA
sister to Adriana
Emilia, an ABBESS at Ephesus
wife to Egeon
JAILER
10
FIRST MERCHANT
friend to Antipholus of Syracuse
ANGELO
a goldsmith
The Comedy of Errors Page 14
