The Comedy of Errors

by Kent Cartwright

  39, 41 patience See 1.2.86n.

  39 would normally taking ‘you’, with ‘wouldst’ taking thou (38); the mixed forms reflect the period’s linguistic change (see Blake, 3.3.2.1.1).

  40 see … bereft i.e. see yourself bereft of the same right (to the husband’s faithful company); bereft implies ‘forcibly deprived’ or ‘robbed’ (OED adj. 1). Cf. reft at 1.1.115 and n.; also right at 4.2.7.

  32 unmoved!–No] Johnson; vnmou’d, no F 33 cause.] this edn; cause: F 34–A] this edn; A F

  41 ‘You will abandon this foolish notion of patience’; fool-begged means foolish; ‘to beg (someone) for a fool’ means ‘to take him for a fool’ (OED beg v. 5a); cf. ‘Let him be begged for a fool’ (Dent, F496). The phrase derives from a legal strategy for gaining control of a minor’s property by having him or her declared a lunatic by the Court of Wards (Johnson, Ard2). See also Lyly, MB, 1.1.41, 4.2.121–2.

  42.1 *See LN.

  45 he’s … me i.e. he has boxed my ears. Cam1 has Dromio enter ‘rubbing his head’. Dromio here launches a series of quibbles.

  48 told his mind ‘communicated what he thought’, but ‘tolled’ Dromio on the ears like a man striking a bell repeatedly (OED toll v.2 2), an image continued from 1.2.45–6.

  49 Beshrew curse (OED v. 3b); cf. MA 5.1.55.

  scarce could understand Dromio puns on the sense of understand as both ‘comprehend’ and ‘stand under’ or, more specifically, ‘endure’ or ‘withstand’ (Crystal & Crystal, understand v. 1); also at 53; cf. TGV 2.5.27, TN 3.1.79.

  50 This 13-syllable line has an epic caesura with a double feminine ending (or single, ‘doubtf’lly’), and a feminine line ending.

  50, 52 doubtfully at 50, ambiguously or indistinctly (OED adv.) (cf. TGV 2.1.111, Tim 4.3.122); at 52, with the added sense of ‘dreadfully’ (OED doubtful adj. 3); Antipholus’ blows left Dromio fearful but unenlightened.

  feel (1) perceive mentally; (2) experience through touch (OED v. 8, 6). Adriana applies the first meaning, Dromio the second.

  42.1] Oxf1; after 43 F OF EPHESUS] Theobald2; Eph. F 45+ SP] (E.Dro., E. Dro., E.Dr., Dro.) 46 two] F2; too F 47] verse as Steevens4 48–9] prose Ayscough 48 Ay, ay,] Rowe; I, I, F; I? Ay. Wells 50–3] Capell lines feel / I / [there]withal / them. / 50] verse as Oxf

  55 Norton compares 1 Cor., 7.33: ‘But he that hath maryed a wyfe, careth … how he may please his wyfe’.

  56 horn-mad proverbial (Dent, H628); mad enough, like a beast, to gore someone with a horn (OED horn-mad adj. a). OED cites Nashe, Have with You to Saffron Walden (1596): ‘a Bulls roaring and bellowing and running horne mad at euery one in his way’ (Nashe, 3.27). But also ‘mad with rage at having been made a cuckold’ (for a cuckold was supposed to grow horns on his brows) (OED b, first citation). Dromio means the first; Adriana hears the second, as Dromio perceives at 58. Cf. 3.1.72 and n., on mad … buck.

  57–8 *See LN.

  58 stark mad absolutely mad (OED stark adv. 2a); also at 5.1.282

  59–70 Dromio recollects both reductively and hyperbolically. His quoth I and Antipholus’ ‘My gold!’ function as epimone, or refrain.

  60 *thousand F2 corrected F’s ‘hundred’ for consistency with 1.2.81 (and 1.1.21). Perhaps the compositor misread 1000 for 100 (see Var.).

  61–3, 66–7 The repetition of closing words in successive clauses is rhetorical antistrophe.

  51 struck] (strooke) 54–5] prose White2 57–8] Pope; villaine? / Cuckold mad, / starke mad: / F; cuckold-mad; / stark mad. / Collier; mean, / stark mad. / Collier3 57 ‘Horn-mad’] this edn; Horne mad F 60 thousand] F2 (1000); hundred F 61 ‘’Tis dinner-time’ … ‘My gold!’] Cam (Capell subst.); ’Tis dinner time … my gold, F 62 ‘Your … burn’ … ‘My gold!’] Cam (Capell subst.); Your … burne … my gold F 63 ‘Will … come home?’ … ‘My gold!’] Cam (Capell subst.); Will … come, … my gold, F come home] Theobald; come F

  66 Hang up a mild imprecation, from ‘hang on a gibbet’ (OED hang v. Phrasal verbs ‘to hang up’ 3); cf. LLL 4.3.52, RJ 3.3.57.

  67 out on another mild imprecation, derived from out as ‘expel or get rid of’ (OED out v. 1a), i.e. ‘to Hell with’

  68 Luciana questions Dromio because he has broken the rhythm of quoth … after each phrase. His vehemence at 66–7 makes her wonder whose sentiments he is reporting (perhaps his own).

  70–3 *These lines occur as prose in F, but most editions, as here, have followed Pope’s verse layout. Pope also apparently considered 67 and 68 to constitute a short verse line, although they make sense as prose (see 2.1.57–8 LN). Pope’s line-breaks coincide elegantly with full and partial stops in F. The speech comes at the foot of the second column on F’s sig. H2r, where the compositor, apparently running out of room, compressed the verse lines into prose to fit the space.

  71 errand … tongue Dromio’s verbal message (the errand) called for a verbal response but was returned instead in the form of a beating.

  72 *bore modernized from F’s ‘bare’. F uses both ‘bare’ and ‘bore’; cf. 5.1.247.

  73 there perhaps both shoulders and home

  74, 77 slave cf. 1.2.87 and n., on slave.

  77 pate See 1.2.65n.

  64 ‘Where … villain?’] Knight (Capell subst.); Where … villaine? F 65 ‘The pig’ … ‘is burned’; ‘My gold!’] Cam (Capell subst.); The Pigge … is burn’d: my gold, F 66 ‘My … sir–’] Cam; My … sir, F sir–] Capell; sir, F 66–7 ‘Hang … mistress!’] Cam (Capell subst.); hang … mistresse. F 67 I … 1mistress] Thy mistress I know not Hanmer; I know thy mistress not Ard (Seymour) 2thy] my F2 69 Quoth] Why, quoth Hanmer 70–3 I know … there] verse as Pope 70 ‘I know’ … ‘no … mistress’] Cam (Capell subst.); I know … no … mistresse F 71 errand] (arrant) 72 bore] Oxf1; bare F my] thy F2 75 ‘Go … again’] this edn; Goe … againe F 77 across] (a-crosse)

  78–9 Dromio refashions Adriana’s threat to break his head across (77), i.e. from one side to another, to mean to break it in the form of a cross (OED across adv. 1). He adds that Antipholus’ prospective beating (OED bless v.2) will likewise consecrate (OED v.1 1a) his head with the sign of the cross (OED v.1 2a). The result will be a holy head, one both sanctified and full of holes.

  80 prating See 1.2.101n., on prating.

  peasant servant (OED n. 1b), but with a further sense, ‘ignorant lout’ (see OED 2); cf. 5.1.231.

  80 SD *In the 2006 Shakespeare’s Globe production in London, Adriana kicked Dromio, so that he rolled downstage, thus making good his claim to be spurned like a football (82).

  81–4 Dromio’s only recourse against physical violence is wit. Although Dromio is not so round, or severe-speaking (OED adj. 18a), as Adriana, both she and Antipholus treat him as if he were round, or spherical, like a football, which they metaphorically kick (OED spurn v.1 2) back and forth between them scornfully (OED 3, 6). (Later, Adriana will herself feel spurned; see 2.2.140 and n.) Dromio’s round also carries the sense of a swinging blow (OED adj. 11a). On foot-spurning, see MND 3.2.225, MV 1.3.118. Football was a popular lower-class game (cf. KL 1.4.86) and a violent one: ‘wherin is nothinge but beastly furie, and extreme violence’ (Elyot, 109 (Wells)), ‘meeter for laming’ (James VI/I, sig. T4r, 143 (Ard2)). Dromio asks to be ‘cased’ in leather, like the bladder inside a leather football, quibbling on last as a verb meaning ‘survive’ and a noun indicating the wooden model of a foot on which cobblers shape leather pieces into shoes. Cf. Ephesian Dromio’s fantasy about Nell as spherical (3.2.116). Dromio riffs again on leather, encasement and survival at 4.2.32–40, 42–5 and, with Syracusan Antipholus, 4.3.13–34 (see 4.3.23n.).

  83–4 hither … leather a rhyme (Kökeritz, 450, 186–7)

  84 a 14-syllable line, rhythmically anapaestic tetrameter, perhaps complementing Dromio’s rapid exit. The line contains parallel clauses analogous to the prior one (rhetorical isocolon), with wh
ich it rhymes. Shakespeare counterbalances the Dromios’ abuse by giving them lines of rhetorical and poetic virtuosity.

  78 And] An Wells 80 SD] Cam1 subst. (opp. home) 82 thus?] F4; thus: F 84 SD] F2

  85–115 Luciana and Adriana again share couplets (85–6 and 101–2); see 10–41n. Adriana takes over the rhyming position at 86 and 102, gaining the rhetorical edge, but surrenders the last chiming word to Luciana at 115.

  85 impatience loureth Cf. Patience, 32 and n.; loureth means looks darkly and threateningly, i.e. scowls (OED lour v. 2), looks sullen (Oxf1); cf. e.g. R2 1.3.235. See 1.2.86n.

  86 do … grace ‘give preference to his darlings [i.e. mistresses]’; ‘do grace’ means ‘do honour to’ (OED grace n. P4a). The minions are nourished while Adriana must starve (87). ‘Minion’ connotes not only favourite (Crystal & Crystal, n. 1) but paramour (OED n.1 1b) and hussy (Crystal & Crystal, n. 2); cf. ‘minion’ at 3.1.54, 59; 4.4.61; TS 2.1.13.

  87–98 Adriana represents herself as diminished in physical and mental attractiveness, for which she blames her husband; cf. her subsequent claim that husband and wife are ‘undividable, incorporate’ (2.2.128).

  87 starve used figuratively (OED v. 4c; first citation); cf. Son 75.10, and ‘famish’d’, Son 47.3. Adriana suggests that she is sustained by her husband’s ‘happy’ or ‘pleased’ (OED merry adj. 4b) regard.

  88–92 Cf. Ephesian Antipholus’ reference to the Courtesan’s prettiness, discourse and wit at 3.1.109–10 (see n.).

  88 homely age age bringing plainness of appearance (OED homely adj. 2c); homely may play on ‘domestic’ (OED 2a). Age is here personified; cf. 5.1.298–300. The underlying figure of speech is a transferred epithet, rhetorically a form of hypallage, in which the modifier is applied to the ‘wrong’ noun: it is age that is homely-making.

  89 wasted destroyed (OED v. 4a); also squandered (OED 9a)

  90 Are … dull ‘Is my conversation boring?’ Ephesian Antipholus, we shall learn, enjoys the Courtesan’s excellent discourse (3.1.109). His twin will find Luciana’s discourse, along with her presence, to be enchanting (3.2.166 and n.). ‘Discourse’ suggests conversational power or faculty (OED n. 3b).

  wit (1) ‘power of invention’ (Ard2); (2) ‘talent for saying brilliant or sparkling things’, especially amusingly (OED n. 7); (3) intellect or intelligence (OED 2a); cf. 2.2.84.

  91 voluble fluent (OED adj. 5)

  sharp quick-witted, discerning, acute (OED adj. 3a); also sharp like a knife and capable of being blunted by a hard object

  92 marble hard proverbial (Tilley, H311)

  90 wit?] F4; wit, F 92 marble hard] marble-hard Capell

  93 their gay vestments i.e. his minions’ showy gowns

  affections passions (OED n.1 1b)

  bait entice (OED v.1 11), with perhaps a pun on ‘bate’, diminish (OED v.2 5a), referring to Antipholus’ lessened affections towards his wife

  94–8 Cf. Adriana’s subsequent argument that husband and wife are one at 2.2.125–52.

  94 he’s … state Adriana turns Luciana’s argument for male mastery to her own advantage (see 15–25, esp. 24).

  state (1) condition in life (OED n. 1a); (2) splendour of clothing (as a reflection of her condition) (OED 16): i.e. she lacks gay vestments (93).

  95–6 What … ruined Adriana’s condition and appearance are ruins because Antipholus has wasted (89) her beauty; she hopes for ‘repair’ (98); ruins … ruined exemplifies rhetorical analepsis.

  96–7 ground / Of reason for (OED ground n. 5c); also base or foundation for (an edifice) (OED 4)

  97 defeatures ruins (OED n. 1); also disfigurements, defacements (OED n. 2). Cf. 5.1.300 and n., on defeatures; VA 736; OED cites these last two as the earliest instances of ‘defeature’ as disfigurement.

  decayed decayèd

  fair beauty (OED n.2 4); cf. Son 18.10.

  99 i.e. but, being overly unmanageable (like a deer in a fenced-in park), he breaks through the boundary (or fence). For an extended and erotic version of this image, see VA 229–40.

  100 feeds gratifies (his) sexual desire (Williams, Glossary, 122–3)

  stale lover or mistress ridiculed by a rival (OED n.3 6), i.e. a laughing stock; ‘prostitute’ or ‘unchaste woman’ (OED n.3 4); also stale food (perpetuating an association of dining with sex). Halliwell emphasizes stale as a decoy (OED n.3 3), the ‘ostensible wife’ under whose cover the husband pursues his affairs. Cf. TS 1.1.58, 3.1.90. In Warner’s translation of Men., the wife says, ‘He makes me a stale and a laughing stocke to all the world’ (30) (Steevens).

  101 beat perhaps as she has just beaten Dromio; personified, jealousy can be flagellated.

  102 with … dispense put up with (OED dispense v. Phrasal verbs ‘to dispense with’ 8)

  99 too-unruly] (too vnruly)

  103 eye Cf. 5.1.50.

  homage allegiance; the rendering of payment in an act of tribute (OED n. 1a, b); cf. 3.2.43.

  otherwhere See 30n.

  104 ‘Otherwise, what hinders him from being here?’; cf. TGV 3.1.113.

  105 chain necklace. The chain, or carcanet (3.1.4), will move from character to character, contributing to the confusions. In Men., the parallel object is a bracelet (‘spinter’, Men., 527) purloined by Menaechmus from his wife and given to Erotium the courtesan, who mistakenly hands it over to Sosicles Menaechmus; in Warner’s translation, the spinter becomes a gold chain (23). Shakespeare greatly intensifies the object’s importance. A chain is more easily visible onstage than a bracelet and coincides with Elizabethan fashion (Ard2). On the chain.

  106–7 *‘If only he would withhold just that [i.e. the chain], provided that he were true to his marriage bed’ (on So, see Abbott, 133). Awkwardness occurs at alone, alone, adopted from F2 in place of F’s incomprehensible ‘alone, a loue’. F2 closes the space in ‘a loue’ and rights u to n; a turned n is a common compositorial error. Adriana occasionally repeats words (e.g. 2.2.126–7), but here the second alone refers differently from the first (rhetorical antistasis). In delivery, the second alone will receive the greater emphasis. For alone, alone see also KJ 3.1.171, Luc 795 (Halliwell and Dyce). Capell treats these lines as addressed to the audience or to Adriana herself.

  106 detain ‘keep back, withhold’ (OED v. 2a)

  107 keep fair quarter maintain proper conduct or relations (OED quarter n. 17a); cf. KJ 5.5.20; see also 2.2.151 (Ard1).

  108–12 *‘Even the best-enamelled jewel will lose its lustre; gold, too, though it can withstand touching, will eventually be worn away by frequent handling. Similarly, a man of good reputation will eventually bring shame on it by practising falsehood and corruption.’ See LN. These difficult lines are often cut on stage. On reputation, see 2.2.136–52; 3.1.86–8, 98–106; 3.2.19–20; 4.1.71; 5.1.5; and related nn.

  108 enamelled enamellèd

  109 his its

  103 otherwhere] (other-where) 106 alone, alone] F2; alone, a loue F; alone alas! Hanmer; alone o’ love Cam1 (Ard1); alone a love Alexander; alone a toy Ard2 (Kellner); alone a’ love Riv 109 his] her Oxf 109–12 and though … yet often-touching … Wear gold–and any … By] this edn; yet the … and often touching … Where gold and no … By F; and the … yet often-touching … Wear Gold: and so no … But Theobald; and tho’ … yet often touching … Wear gold: and so no … But Hanmer; Yet the … and often touching … Wear gold, and yet no … By Oxf; yet the … and often-touching … Wear gold–and any … By (Weiss) 111–12] om. F2

  112 shame public dishonour and the painful personal emotion associated with it; shame constitutes a powerful form of chastisement in CE, as elsewhere in Shakespeare. See 3.2.10, 19–20; 4.1.84; 4.4.68, 81, 106; 5.1.14, 18, 254, 322.

  113–15 eye … die … jealousy a scene-ending triple rhyme, with Luciana topping Adriana’s couplet (Kökeritz, 454)

  114 weep … weeping Here Adriana may actually weep, an actio
n repeatedly associated with her; see her own reference at 2.2.210; also weeping sister (3.2.42), flood of tears (3.2.46), tears and prayers (5.1.115). The weep/weeping repetition is rhetorical epanalepsis.

  115 fond infatuated; silly (OED adj. 2); also mad or dazed (OED 3), perhaps hinting at the play’s emerging theme of madness

  serve provide opportunity to (Crystal & Crystal, v. 3)

  2.2 Dyce2 locates this scene on the mart.

  2 the Centaur See 1.2.9 and n., on the Centaur. Since his last appearance, Antipholus has gone to the inn as he resolved (1.2.104) and has found his gold faithfully deposited by Dromio.

  heedful careful, mindful (OED adj.)

  slave Cf. 1.2.87n., on slave. On a likewise missing slave, cf. 2.1.1.

  3 wandered strolled without preset route (OED wander v. 1e), although not aimlessly, since Dromio has wandered in search of Antipholus. Antipholus had instructed Dromio to wait for him at the inn (1.2.10), but Dromio instead has gone back to find his master, which Antipholus takes as good service. On wander, see 1.2.31 and n.

  in care out of concern (OED care n.1 2)

  3–4 *out… . report, Antipholus concludes, from the innkeeper’s report and his own time calculation, that he could not have just spoken with Dromio (1.2.41–94) because Dromio had lacked sufficient time to arrive at the inn, deposit the gold and return for their conversation. Rowe inserted the full stop after out and accepted F4’s comma after report instead of F’s full stop. F’s punctuation suggests incomprehensibly that Dromio had embarked on his search for his master based on his own calculation and his host’s information.

  4–6 By … mart Antipholus’ bafflement contributes to his fear of Ephesian enchantment. On 1.2 as set in the mart, see 1.2.27n.

  114 what’s left away,] Pope; (what’s left away) F 115 SD] F2; Exit. F 2.2] Capell (SCENE II.) (Theobald subst.) 0.1 ANTIPHOLUS] (Antipholis), Malone OF SYRACUSE] Rowe; Errotis F 1+ SP] (Ant., E.Ant., Antiph., Anti., An., Antip.) 3–4 out… . report,] Rowe; out … report. F

  6 SD *relocated here from its placement in F after the complete line of dialogue; see 2.1.42.1 LN. A cue for this entrance might be Dromio (5).