The Comedy of Errors

The Comedy of Errors opens with Egeon, an old merchant from Syracuse recently landed in Ephesus, uncomedically condemned to die, the hapless and unwitting victim of a trade war between the two cities. The Duke of Ephesus, moved by Egeon's tale of woe, grants him one day to find the funds necessary to buy his freedom. The merchant's tale revolves around a shipwreck occurring twenty-three years previously. Egeon was at sea with his wife, Emilia, his infant twin sons, and a pair of similarly-aged serving boys. In the wreck, he found himself sundered from Emilia, one of his sons, as well as from one of the servants. It is the search for them that brings him to Ephesus.

Meanwhile, Egeon's remaining son, named Antipholus in remembrance of his lost twin brother, has coincidentally landed in Ephesus with his servant Dromio. The two left Syracuse five years before to search for the brothers they never knew.

Having been forewarned to hide his nationality, Antipholus of Syracuse sends Dromio to stow their money safely while he goes to look around the town. When his servant appears to have returned with unexpected haste, bidding his errant, unmarried master home to wife and midday meal, Antipholus becomes confused. Worrying that something is amiss and convinced that Dromio jokes at his expense, Antipholus beats the servant until he flees, not realizing that in actuality it is the twin brother of his own Dromio that he beats.

For unbeknownst to either Egeon or the son he raised in Syracuse, Ephesus is indeed home to the long-lost Antipholus, his wife Adriana, her sister Luciana, and the other servant twin, also bearing the name of Dromio.

Adriana worries to Luciana that her husband no longer loves her. When Ephesian Dromio returns to report his presumed master's strange behavior, she refuses her unwed sister's advice to remain patient in the conviction that Antipholus pursues other women.

Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse rejoin, and while master is reassured that all's well at their inn, servant is confused at being beaten for an offense he didn't give. Soon enough, their confusion becomes mutual when Adriana and Luciana enter and urge them "home" to dinner. In fear of some sort of black magic, they agree to play along. Dromio is set as porter and told to admit no one.

In the meantime, Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus, accompanied by Angelo, the goldsmith from whom Antipholus has ordered a golden chain, and another friend, return home and find the doors locked against them. In a rage at being mocked and barred from his own home, Antipholus decides to dine elsewhere and avenge himself later.

Luciana tries to persuade Antipholus of Syracuse to treat Adriana more kindly, but departs in a panic when he, sincerely insisting himself free from any attachment to Adriana, instead confesses his love for her. Dromio has found himself in a similarly confused scenario involving Nell the kitchen wench, whose cosmopolitan charms he recounts at length. Fearing witchcraft, Antipholus sends Dromio to seek a ship to carry them from Ephesus as soon as possible. Angelo the goldsmith, taking Syracusan Antipholus for his twin, mistakes the latter's genuine confusion for jest and gives him the chain against later payment.

Angelo, himself indebted to another merchant, asks Antipholus of Ephesus to pay his creditor in return for the chain. Not having received the chain, this Antipholus refuses and finds himself arrested. When Syracusan Dromio enters with news of a ship, Antipholus mistakes him for his own servant and sends him home for bail money. Dromio returns to get the money, interrupting Luciana's description to Adriana of what she takes to be the strange behavior of her brother-in-law. Fuelled by the cupidity of Antipholus' Courtesan acquaintance and the general confusion arising from the twins' intertwined comings and goings, the Ephesian twins are declared possessed madmen, bound and put under the care of one Pinch.

But even as the pair is forced within, all flee when they seem to reappear with drawn swords. In fact, it is the Syracusan twins who enter, brandishing weapons to defend themselves from the "sorcerous" inhabitants of Ephesus until they can embark and leave the city for good. But brought to bay by Adriana, Angelo and various other Ephesians, Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse take refuge in a priory.

After the Abbess refuses to release the refugees to the mob, Adriana appeals to the Duke, who is proceeding to the place of execution with Egeon. Having escaped from Pinch, Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus enter to general amazement (and a spark of hope in Egeon), and similarly appeal to the Duke. Amid the tumult of incompatible accounts, accusations and denials, the Duke summons the Abbess. When she emerges with Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse, the confusion reaches a momentary pitch before things become clear. The Abbess is none other than Emilia, Egeon's wife, who had been severed from her pair of twins as well. For the first time since the birth of the twins, father, mother, sons and servants are all reunited. The Duke pardons Egeon, and all enter the priory for a joyous reconciliation.

J. Ripp

© Joseph Ripp,

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