The Comedy of Errors: ‘Hand in Hand, Not One Before the Other.’

The History Of European Theatre

Episode 139:

Last time ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’ gave us a look at second comedy from Shakespeare’s early phase as a playwright. As you heard certain elements in the plotting of the play and execution of its denouement make it problematic, but nevertheless it showed early promise. The lyrical nature of much of the language used in that play is quite typical of the earliest comedies and it is probably not coincidental that this was around the time that Shakespeare was writing his long lyrical poem ‘Venus and Adonis’, so we might assume that his mindset at the time was that of a lyrical poet, and maybe we see that influence still in his probable next work, the much more accomplished play ‘The Comedy of Errors’, which has remained one of the more popular Shakespeare comedies since its first performance.

The Source for the play and changes Shakespeare made to it

The original text of the play

The dating and earliest performances of the play

Foul Papers

The setting as a Roman street with three houses

A Synopsis of the play

The serious and long opening exposition.

The importance of a dramatic opening scene

Social commentary in the play

Adriana as a well-developed character for a light-hearted farce

Antipholus of Ephesus as an unpleasant character, but toned down from the source material

Antipholus of Syracuse as a more sympathetic character

The punishment of the Dromio twins

The view of authority in the play

The problems with the plot (if we take it too seriously)

The soliloquies of Antipholus of Syracuse

Luciana and the expression of the value of tradition

What should we read into the very ending of the play?

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