Product Description

This play has been popular on the stage during the last three centuries and has proved itself admirably suited to adaptation as pure farce and musical spectacle. Professor Dorsch’s account of staging pays special attention to the earliest known performance at Gray’s Inn Hall during the Christmas revels of 1594. His full discussion of the classical and romance elements of the sources is followed by sections on characterisation and language which reveal the variety of pace and diction in the play, Shakespeare’s metrical versatility and his use of imagery.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1035065 in Books
• Published on: 1988-06-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 129 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Generally believed to be Shakespeare's first comedy, The Comedy of Errors was first performed at the London Inns of Court in 1594, and has been unfairly dismissed as a piece of knockabout farce from Shakespeare's apprentice years. The play's action is very funny, especially in performance. Shipwrecked many years before the start of the play, Egeon of Syracuse searches vainly for his lost wife, one of his twin sons and one of their twin servants. Landing in Ephesus he falls foul of an obscure law condemning him to death unless he pays an enormous fine within 24 hours. The clock starts ticking and the action of the play begins to unfold. Egeon is not aware that his son Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant Dromio have also landed in Ephesus, but even worse, it soon becomes clear to the audience that Ephesus is also the home of the lost twin and servant, Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus.

So begins the comedy of errors, as the pairs of twins are repeatedly and hilariously mistaken for each other, much to the consternation of their friends, creditors and lovers. Yet the play is also shot through with more serious issues. The sentence of death hangs over the father from the very beginning of the play, strange things happen to time as the play progresses, and the space of trade and the marketplace are never far away. The laughter of mistaken identity also gives way to more profound questions of identity, as when Antipholus of Syracuse says of himself that "I to the world am like a drop of water/That in the ocean seeks another drop." The Comedy of Errors is a much neglected play which is only now achieving the critical and theatrical attention it deserves. --Jerry Brotton

Customer Reviews

Shakespeare made accessible
At last, play notes on one side of the page, and the play text on the other! For anyone who, like me, needs help with understanding all of Shakespeare, but gets fed up of constantly turning to the back of the book, this is ideal.