The Comedy of Errors – "I to the world am like a drop of water that in the ocean seeks another drop…”

 The Comedy of Errors  – "I to the world am like a drop of water 
that in the ocean seeks another drop…”

"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…

confounds himself." (Act, 1, Sc. 2, Lines 35-38)

After, for at least a year, bearing the ins and outs of people around him dying of the plague, and suffering the hardship of getting no income from play performances (even though starvation and the bills from Stratford-Upon-Avon would have been paid for by some of the money that came in from Southampton, the likely patron of his poems), Shakespeare and the people of London were ready for a good, quick comedy.

‘The Comedy of Errors’ is Shakespeare’s shortest play. It has the puns and word play that Shakespeare had become so adept at using in his earliest comedies but Shakespeare had also learnt so much more from writing History plays, narrative poetry and reading pamphlets from the book market. His year of writing poetry and not having his plays performed had strengthened and fine-tuned Shakespeare as a writer. His verse is tighter, ‘mouth-crammed’ with poetic and dramatic devices, some intuitive but some heavily influenced by the Italian commedia dell arte. This has led some to claim that he went to Italy during 1593. Fanciful and highly unlikely but it is obvious that he has either seen or read com media pieces during this period or, more likely, heard detailed stories and seen drunken unemployed actors reenact lazzi and sequences in the long hours and nights spent in 1594 in one of the two makeshift ‘not-so-legal’ taverns in Bishopsgate.

The play of 'The Comedy of Errors' is an old fashioned farce and one of the few of his plays that observes Aristotle’s classical dramatic unities. Shakespeare is a genius and we think of him as a genius because he is one who breaks the rules but in 1594, he was a genius because he fulfilled the rules. The three dramatic unities of Aristotle, if I remember correctly, are action (the drama has one major plot or sequence of actions), place (the action happens in one place) and time (the action of the drama happens over a single 24 hour period). The comedy of 'The Comedy of Errors' relies ostensibly on mistaken identity and two sets of identical twins that were separated at birth (Ancient Roman would have loved this plot).

Now let's see how good my precise skills are. In Ephesus (an Ancient Greek city that exists only in Shakespeare’s imagination and in the mildew-ridden oak walls of the Rose Theatre), Egeon is about to be executed by Solinus (Duke of Ephesus) because he can’t pay the fine of one thousand marks which any Syracusan found within the city walls of Ephesus must pay (gee, I got a lot into one sentence there). Egeon welcomes death since he claims it will bring an end to his woes.

“… proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall,

And by the doom of death end woes and all… “ (I.i.1-2)

(So glad to use a quote since it saves so many words and moves the plot along). Of course, after Shakespeare has given us a hit of a rhyming couplet like that, Solinus’ curiosity gets the better of him and he asks Egeon to tell his story.

Egeon tells the story of his prosperous life and marriage and how his loving wife gave birth to identical twins on the same day as other twins were born.

“A joyful mother of two goodly sons…

The one so like the other…

That very hour, and in the self-same inn,

A meaner woman was delivered

Of such a burden, male twins, both alike…”

Egeon, being very fond of twins, bought the ‘lowly’ newborns, intending to have them as servants for his twin sons (of course nowadays people buy other trendy gifts for their twin sons such as twin goats in Somalia).

However, on the return boat journey, a storm hits and their ship is wrecked (Shakespeare, never living by the sea at any point in his life, will use this device many times in his lifetime). Egeon’s wife strapped herself, with one of her sons and one of the twin servants, to one of the ship’s masts. Being very original in thought and action, Egeon did the same. A rock splits the parties apart and Egeon and his crew go in one direction and his wife and her entourage go in another. A Corinthian ship rescues Egeon’s mob while Egeon sees an Epidaurian ship pick up his wife’s mob.

Of course Egeon’s son, when he grows up, being bored with Egeon's stories and puns, wants to find his mother and brother, so the son and the servant set off. Egeon, being very original in thought and action, follows suit. The Duke, being either bored or intrigued by Egeon's story, grants Egeon a day’s liberty to see if he can raise the ransom funds to secure his release. Egeon hits the town.

Same Bat-town, same Bat-time. Egeon's son, Antipholus (oblivious to the fact that his father is in the same town, monitoring his mobile phone), befriends Antipholus who advises him to lie about where he comes from to avoid arrest. Antipholus, who is a bit dim because of the genes he has inherited from Egeon, sends his servant, Dromio, to an inn to get the money (fortuitously one thousand marks) and his baggage (this is not meant as a metaphor or a pun). Antipholus, bemoans the fact that he cannot find his brother. Well, his brother is in fact now a prosperous citizen of (wait for this) the self same town of Ephesus, served by his own Dromio of Ephesus. Antipholus of Ephesus is married to a woman named Adriana, and he is a great favorite of Duke Solinus.

Confusion proliferates. Dromio has mistaken this Antipholus for Antipholus of Ephesus, and Antipholus S., in turn, mistakes this Dromio for his own servant. How did an audience cope with this confusion (perhaps they arrived late from the bear-baiting). Hencew, at this points states:

"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…

confounds himself." (Act, 1, Sc. 2, Lines 35-38)

More bizarre confusion proliferates. Act 1 ends in madness.

The Comedy of Errors Act 2 – “Since that my beauty cannot please his eye, I'll weep what's left away, and weeping die.”

The original staging of ‘The Comedy of Errors’ must have been interesting. The play is so dependent on quick appearances and disappearances and lightning scene changes that we must assume that with Shakespeare working with a company of 17 actors at this point, and 17 parts in ‘The Comedy of Errors’, then each actor probably only played one part this time. This would have been very different to ‘Henry VI Part 2’ which has over 50 parts and with the company maybe having expanded to 20 people at that point, most bit part players would have played 2 to 5 parts each. I have seen ‘The Comedy of Errors’ done with a set almost completely composed of doors but my guess is that a separate curtained area, a bit like a Roman comedy, was originally used at The Rose where it was probably performed.

In Act 2, the confusion of earlier scenes proliferates. Adriana is upset because Antipholus (her husband) has not returned home yet. Her sister, Luciana thinks he is out eating and enjoying himself somewhere, and she believes this is fine because Luciana believes, “A man is master of his own liberty…” But Adriana forthrightly questions, “Why should their liberty than ours be more?” Ironically, she then counsels her sister Luciana to marry so that Luciana will not be so subservient and thus have more power and willfulness.

Dromio (Antipholus’ and Adriana’s servant) enters and begins to tell Adriana of his strange conversation with Antipholus and his impression that Antipholus is mad:

“I mean not cuckold-mad;

But, sure, he is stark mad.

When I desired him to come home to dinner,

He ask'd me for a thousand marks in gold:

''Tis dinner-time,' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he;

'Your meat doth burn,' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he:

'Will you come home?' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he.

'Where is the thousand marks I gave thee, villain?'

'The pig,' quoth I, 'is burn'd;' 'My gold!' quoth he:

'My mistress, sir' quoth I; 'Hang up thy mistress!

I know not thy mistress; out on thy mistress…

For, in conclusion, he did beat me there.”

Adriana is not impressed and she demands that he return with his master or she will beat him here as well. Dromio protests that he does not want to be “new beaten home” but Adriana beats him anyway out the door.

Then Adriana complains bitterly to Luciana that her husband has abandoned her and treated her badly and that he should return with Dromio.

“His company must do his minions grace,

Whilst I at home starve for a merry look.

Hath homely age the alluring beauty took

From my poor cheek? then he hath wasted it:

Are my discourses dull? barren my wit?

If voluble and sharp discourse be marr'd,

Unkindness blunts it more than marble hard:

Do their gay vestments his affections bait?

That's not my fault: he's master of my state:

What ruins are in me that can be found,

By him not ruin'd? then is he the ground

Of my defeatures. My decayed fair

A sunny look of his would soon repair

But, too unruly deer, he breaks the pale

And feeds from home; poor I am but his stale.”

Finally, she convinces herself that he is seeing another woman because she is no longer beautiful and she decides,

“Since that my beauty cannot please his eye,

I'll weep what's left away, and weeping die.”

Luciana ends the scene alone rhetorically declaring:

“How many fond fools serve mad jealousy!”

Antipholus (the one from Syracuse who is “… in Ephesus but two hours old…”) who has been waiting for Dromio of Syracuse berates him, when he arrives, based on the conversation he had with the other Dromio. Dromio of Syracuse thinks that Antipholus is joking until the harsh reality of a beating knocks him back to the confusion of reality which is further confused by a plethora of puns about baldness and hair loss. 

Then Adriana and Luciana enter and the waters become truly muddied. Adriana, of course, mistakes Antipholus of Syracuse for her husband, promptly complains of his infidelity and demands to know why he did not return with Dromio earlier. When Dromio rejects having ever met Adriana, Antipholus suspiciously does not believe Dromio since his previous conversation with Dromio (who was really Dromio of Ephesus) shows him to be a liar or a madman. Adriana knows an intimate dinner will solve everything and takes command of the situation:

“Come, come, no longer will I be a fool,

To put the finger in the eye and weep,

Whilst man and master laugh my woes to scorn.

Come, sir, to dinner. Dromio, keep the gate.

Husband, I'll dine above with you to-day

And shrive you of a thousand idle pranks.

Sirrah, if any ask you for your master,

Say he dines forth, and let no creature enter.

Come, sister. Dromio, play the porter well.”

The Comedy of Errors Act Three – “There is something in the wind, that we cannot get in.”

Can Dromio be on stage at the same time as Dromio? Can Antipholus of Ephesus appear on stage 30 seconds after Antipholus of Syracuse? Antipholus of Ephesus is having a necklace made by the goldsmith Angelo for his wife. Dromio complains of how Antipholus treated him badly before but Antipholus doesn’t know what Dromio is talking about.

They then go off to Antipholus’ house, but the gate is locked and Dromio of Syracuse refuses to let them enter. Like his name, Dromio causes confusion. Adriana’s maid comes out to tell the men to go away and then Adriana comes out and does the same. Antipholus then demands his Dromio get something to break through the gate.

Inside the house, Luciana reprimands Antipholus on the way he treats his wife and puts her down.

“And let her read it in thy looks at board:

Shame hath a bastard fame, well managed;

Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word.”

Antipholus claims he has no wife but that he finds Luciana herself to be beautiful and makes advanced towards her.

“Thee will I love and with thee lead my life:

Thou hast no husband yet nor I no wife.”

Luciana is shocked so she goes to get Adriana.

Then, Dromio enters complaining that he is being followed by a woman. This is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Antipholus then suggests that he and Dromio leave Ephesus that very night and he asks Dromio to find out what ships are leaving.

“Go hie thee presently, post to the road:

An if the wind blow any way from shore,

I will not harbour in this town to-night:

If any bark put forth, come to the mart,

Where I will walk till thou return to me.

If every one knows us and we know none,

'Tis time, I think, to trudge, pack and be gone.”

Angelo returns with the gold chain and gives it to Antipholus of Syracuse who doesn’t know what he will do with the chain now. He then decides to leave and rejoin Dromio so that they can escape from Ephesus which now seems like the maddest place on earth.

The Comedy of Errors - Act 4 “Both wind and tide stays for this gentleman, and I, to blame, have held him here too long.”

Simple plots can be twisted and complicated until they prove convolutedly comical. In Act 4, we see the confusions set in place in Acts 1 and 2, and the conversations and interactions of Act 3, bear fruit. The goldsmith Angelo owes money to the Second Merchant and is threatened with arrest and Angelo claims he will make payment when Antipholus pays him for the gold chain he made for Antipholus to give to his wife. Angelo sees Antipholus who has just sent Dromio off to buy rope so that he can thrash his wife for locking him out of the house and depriving him of a meal. Angelo asks for payment on the chain (which he gave to the other Antipholus). Antipholus claims he never received the chain. Angelo threatens to jail Antipholus. Then Dromio (not the one who just went offstage but Dromio of Syracuse) returns with a full list of which ships are leaving from the harbor. Antipholus cuts him short and asks Dromio to go to Adriana to fetch his purse so that he can avoid jail.

After finding out that the man she thinks is her husband has declared his love for her own sister Luciana, Adriana declares she both loves and curses her husband Antipolus: “My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse.” Dromio (of Syracuse) rushes in to report Antipholus has been arrested and needs some of his money. Luciana is sent back home to get the money and Dromio is ordered to hurry and go and save Adriana’s husband from the fate of prison. Dromio hesitates:

 “Time is a very bankrupt, and owes more than he's worth, to season.” Adriana urges haste.

 

Meanwhile, Antipholus of Syracuse is cruising the city and he is surprised how everyone greets him like a friend.

“There’s not a man I meet but doth salute me

As if I were their well-acquainted friend

And every one doth call me by my name.”

Enter Dromio of Syracuse with the gold that Adriana sent him to get from home to prevent Antipholus of Ephesus from being out in jail. Antipholus is confused and asks Dromio about which ships are leaving Ephesus. The Courtesan enters and asks for a ring that the other Antipholus borrowed. Both Antipholus and Dromio are confused. The Courtesan wants go to see Antipholus’ wife to sort out this business and get her ring back.

With Antipholus of Ephesus in police custody, Dromio enters with a rope end. Antipholus requests that Dromio gives him the money he was sent for to prevent Antipholus from going to jail. Dromio is perplexed and confused but, Antipholus is angry and tries to assault Dromio.

Enter Adriana, Luciana, the Courtesan, and Dr. Pinch, a school master and part time sorcerer (teacher’s colleges were much more exciting and diverse in the range of skills they taught back then). Knowing Antipholus to be mad, the women want to use the doctor to cure Antipholus with an exorcism (a medical practice sadly no longer covered by medical insurance). Antipholus beats the doctor, while Antipholus and Dromio argue over where Antipholus had dinner. Doctor Pinch declares both Antipholus and Dromio mad and that they must be “… bound and laid in some dark room.” Obviously some bizarre treatments for mental illness have not changed. They are led off. Adriana promises to pay all her husband’s debts and then hears about the gold chain which her husband still owes Angelo, the goldsmith for. Suddenly, the Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse swashbuckle in brandishing their swords. All the others flee thinking that Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus have escaped. Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse see this as proof that the people of Ephesus are witches and that these witches are afraid of swords. Witchcraft seems as reasonable as a explanation as madness. So Act 4 ends as Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse declare they will leave the town on the next boat.

“ I will not stay tonight for all the town;

Therefore away to get our stuff aboard.”

The Comedy of Errors – Act 5  "I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth.”

Insults in the streets, the drawing of swords, fleeing and seeking sanctuary in a church and the reunion of twins and their father – ‘The Comedy of Errors’ ends with all the clichés of a commedia dell arte performance. Act 5 starts with the goldsmith Angelo and the Second Merchant musing over why Antipholus (the one of Ephesus) keeps claiming never to have received the gold chain Angelo made for him. They fortuitously see Dromio and Antipholus (the pair from Syracuse although they think are the pair from Ephesus) and of course Antipholus actually has the disputed gold chain around his neck.  Insults are exchanged:

“Antonio: Signior Antipholus, I wonder much

That you would put me to this shame and trouble…”

“Antipholus: Thou art a villain to impeach me thus;

I’ll prove mine honour and mine honesty

Against thee presently, if thou darest stand…”

Of course, swords are drawn and then Adriana, Luciana and the Courtesan enter, declaring Antipholus and Dromio to be mad. Antipholus and Dromio exit and seek sanctuary in a conveniently located priory.

The Abbess Aemelia emerges from the priory demanding to know what the clamor is all about. She will prove to be the deus ex machina who will resolve everything but not just yet. Abbess Aemelia hears from Adriana about the madness of her husband. Of course, in true commedia style, the pious and reasonable Abbess Aemelia (who would never cut it as a modern day marriage counselor) blames this madness on Adrianna’s jealousy.

“The venom clamours of a jealous woman

Poisons more deadly than a mad dog’s tooth.”

Abbess Aemelia claims that she will counsel and cure Antipholus herself and “…bring him to his wits again.”

Adriana does not want to accept the Abbess’ solution and wants to appeal directly to Duke Solinus (remember him from Act 1) himself. Being 5 o’clock in the evening, the Duke leads Egeon to his death by execution. Adriana approaches Duke Solinus and appeals to him to get her husband from the Abbess Aemelia and let her husband come back with her to their house. The Duke decides he will determine this matter before he puts Egeon to his death.

Then news arrives that Antipholus and Dromio (of Ephesus) have escaped from Adriana's house. Adriana claims this can’t be true because she just saw her husband run into the abbey. Suddenly Antipholus (of Ephesus) comes in wanting the Duke to give him justice for his wife locking him out of the house and then locking him up. Accusations fly about and the Duke calls on the Abbess to try to work out the truth and a solution.

Egeon, sees Antipholus of Ephesus and claims he is the son he brought up in Syracruse. Antipholus of Ephesus claims he has lived in Ephesus for nearly all his life. Enter The Abbess with Antipholus and Dromio (of Syracuse), to sort out, or rather further complicate, the issue. We find out that The Abbess is Egeon’s wife, Emilia and that Antipholus of Ephesus and Antipholus of Syracruse are identical twins as are the Dromios. General joy erupts. One of the Dromio's exclaims:

"I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth.”

Rings are returned, gold chains paid for, the Duke no longer wants payment for Egeon’s life and everyone withdraws to the Abbey for a party and presumably some wine.

Shakespeare returns in ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’…