William Shakespeare

      THE COMEDY

       OF ERRORS

      ( 1592–1594 )

      First Folio, 1623

      errors

       ¶

      Act I

      Sc. I Sc. II

      Act II

      Sc. I Sc. II

      Act III

      Sc. I Sc. II

      Act IV

      Sc. I Sc. II Sc. III Sc. IV

      Act V

       Sc. I

      [Dramatis Personae

      Solinus, Duke of Ephesus

      Egeon, a merchant of Syracuse

      Antipholus of Ephesus,

      Antipholus of Syracuse, twin brothers, and sons to Egeon and Aemilia

      Dromio of Ephesus,

      Dromio of Syracuse, twin brothers, and bondmen to the two Antipholuses

      Balthazar, a merchant

      Angelo, a goldsmith

      First Merchant of Ephesus, friend to Antipholus of Syracuse

      Second Merchant of Ephesus, to whom Angelo is a debtor

      Doctor Pinch, a conjuring schoolmaster

      Aemilia, wife to Egeon, an abbess at Ephesus

      Adriana, wife to Antipholus of Ephesus

      Luciana, her sister

      Luce, servant to Adriana (also known as Nell)

       Courtezan

      Jailer, Headsman, Messenger, Officers, and other Attendants

      Scene: Ephesus]

      ACT I

      Scene I

       Enter the Duke of Ephesus with [Egeon] the merchant of Syracusa, Jailer [with Officers], and other Attendants.

       Ege.

      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 threat’ning 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.

       Ege.

      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 departedst from thy native home,

      And for what cause thou cam’st to Ephesus.

       Ege.

      A heavier task could not have been impos’d

      Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable:

      Yet that the world may witness that my end

      Was wrought by nature, not by vile offense,

      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 liv’d in joy; our wealth increas’d

      By prosperous voyages I often made

      To Epidamium, till my factor’s death,

      And [the] great care of goods at randon 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 mean woman was delivered

      Of such a burthen male, twins both alike.

      Those, for their parents were exceeding poor,

      I