The Comedy of Errors, William Shakespeare [book club suggestions .txt] 📗

The Comedy of Errors

By William Shakespeare.

Table of Contents Titlepage Imprint Dramatis Personae The Comedy of Errors Act I Scene I Scene II Act II Scene I Scene II Act III Scene I Scene II Act IV Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Act V Scene I Colophon Uncopyright Imprint

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Dramatis Personae

Solinus, duke of Ephesus

Aegeon, a merchant of Syracuse

Antipholus of Ephesus, twin brother and son to Aegeon and Aemilia

Antipholus of Syracuse, twin brother and son to Aegeon and Aemilia

Dromio of Ephesus, twin brother, and attendant on the two Antipholuses

Dromio of Syracuse, twin brother, and attendant on the two Antipholuses

Balthazar, a merchant

Angelo, a goldsmith

First Merchant, friend to Antipholus of Syracuse

Second Merchant, to whom Angelo is a debtor

Pinch, a schoolmaster

Aemilia, wife to Aegeon, an abbess at Ephesus

Adriana, wife to Antipholus of Ephesus

Luciana, her sister

Luce, servant to Adriana

A courtesan

Gaoler, officers, and other attendants

Scene: Ephesus

The Comedy of Errors Act I Scene I

A hall in the Duke’s palace.

Enter Duke, Aegeon, Gaoler, Officers, and other Attendants. Aegeon

Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall
And by the doom of death end woes and all.

Duke

Merchant of Syracusa, plead no more;
I am not partial to infringe our laws:
The enmity and discord which of late
Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your duke
To merchants, our well-dealing countrymen,
Who wanting guilders to redeem their lives
Have seal’d his rigorous statutes with their bloods,
Excludes all pity from our threatening looks.
For, since the mortal and intestine jars
’Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us,
It hath in solemn synods been decreed,
Both by the Syracusians and ourselves,
To admit no traffic to our adverse towns:
Nay, more,
If any born at Ephesus be seen
At any Syracusian marts and fairs;
Again: if any Syracusian born
Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies,
His goods confiscate to the duke’s dispose,
Unless a thousand marks be levied,
To quit the penalty and to ransom him.
Thy substance, valued at the highest rate,
Cannot amount unto a hundred marks;
Therefore by law thou art condemn’d to die.

Aegeon

Yet this my comfort: when your words are done,
My woes end likewise with the evening sun.

Duke

Well, Syracusian, say in brief the cause
Why thou departed’st from thy native home
And for what cause thou camest to Ephesus.

Aegeon

A heavier task could not have been imposed
Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable:
Yet, that the world may witness that my end
Was wrought by nature, not by vile offence,
I’ll utter what my sorrow gives me leave.
In Syracusa was I born, and wed
Unto a woman, happy but for me,
And by me, had not our hap been bad.
With her I lived in joy; our wealth increased
By prosperous voyages I often made
To Epidamnum; till my factor’s death
And the great care of goods at random left
Drew me from kind embracements of my spouse:
From whom my absence was not six months old
Before herself, almost at fainting under
The pleasing punishment that women bear,
Had made provision for her following me
And soon and safe arrived where I was.
There had she not been long but she became
A joyful mother of two goodly sons;
And, which was strange, the one so like the other
As could not be distinguish’d but by names.
That very hour and in the self-same inn
A meaner woman was delivered
Of such a burden, male twins, both alike:
Those, for their parents were exceeding poor,
I bought and brought up to attend my sons.
My wife, not meanly proud of two such boys,
Made daily motions for our home return:
Unwilling I agreed; alas! too soon
We came aboard.
A league from Epidamnum had we sail’d,
Before the always wind-obeying deep
Gave any tragic instance of our harm:
But longer did we not retain much hope;
For what obscured light the heavens did grant
Did but convey unto our fearful minds
A doubtful warrant of immediate death;
Which though myself would gladly have embraced,
Yet the incessant weepings of my wife,
Weeping before for what she saw must come,
And piteous plainings of the pretty babes,
That mourn’d for fashion, ignorant what to fear,
Forced me to seek delays for them and me.
And this it was, for other means was none:
The sailors sought for safety by our boat,
And left the ship, then sinking-ripe, to us:
My wife, more careful for the latter-born,
Had fasten’d him unto a small spare mast,
Such as seafaring men provide for storms;
To him one of the other twins was bound,
Whilst I had been like heedful of the other:
The children thus disposed, my wife and I,
Fixing our eyes on whom our care was fix’d,
Fasten’d ourselves at either end the mast;
And floating straight, obedient to the stream,
Was carried towards Corinth, as we thought.
At length the sun, gazing upon the earth,
Dispersed those vapours that offended us;
And, by the benefit of his wished light,
The seas wax’d calm, and we discovered
Two ships from far making amain to us,
Of Corinth that, of Epidaurus this:
But ere they came⁠—O, let me say no more!
Gather the sequel by that went before.

Duke

Nay, forward, old man; do not break off so;
For we may pity, though not pardon