.......The play is a comedy that veers toward farce and burlesque. It is sometimes classified as a "comedy of intrigue" or a "comedy of situation." The latter, like the modern TV situation comedy, relies heavily on mix-ups and sometimes slapstick. With approximately 16,250 words, The Comedy of Errors is Shakespeare's shortest play.

Key Dates
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Date Written: Early 1590's. 
First Performance: Probably December 28, 1594, at Gray's Inn in London. Gray's Inn was one of four "Inns of Court," establishments for educating members of the legal profession. The other inns of court were Lincoln's Inn, the Inner Temple, and the Outer Temple.

Sources

.......Shakespeare based the plot on The Menaechmus Twins, by Plautus (254?-184 BC), and possibly, Amphitruo, by the same author.

Setting
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.......The action of the play takes place in Ephesus (in present-day western Turkey, near Izmir), an important Greek trading center in ancient times. It was the site of the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Over time, it fell under the rule of various peoples, including the Cimmerians, Lydians, Persians, Macedonians, and, beginning in 189 BC, the Romans. A Christian community flourished there in the First Century AD. 
.......After its destruction by Goths in AD 262, Ephesus was rebuilt but never recaptured its ancient importance. By the fourteenth century, it became a ghost town. Ruins of the ancient temple are a tourist attraction today.

Characters
 2
Protagonist: Antipholus of Syracuse. One may also fairly argue in favor of another major character as the protagonist or maintain that there is no protagonist. However, Antipholus of Syracuse is the central character in the major event of the play: the quest for persons lost at sea. He actively seeks them and, in so doing, occupies center stage and generates the comic episodes. His brother, Antipholus of Ephesus, is a passive observer or participant in these episodes. Aegeon, the father of Antipholus of Syracuse, catalyzes the action in the opening act, but he plays no major role in the events leading up to the family reunion at the end of the play.
Antagonist: Mischievous Fate, in the form of coincidence and mischance.
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Solinus: Duke of Ephesus.
Aegeon: Merchant of Syracuse.
Antipholus of Ephesus, Antipholus of Syracuse: Twin brothers who become separated as children by a shipwreck. They are the sons of Aegeon and Aemilia. 
Dromio of Ephesus, Dromio of Syracuse: Twin brothers who become separated as children by a shipwreck. One is the attendant of Antipholus of Ephesus and the other the attendant of Antipholus of Syracuse.
Balthazar: Merchant.
Angelo: Goldsmith.
Aemilia (Abbess): Wife of Aegeon.
Adriana: Wife of Antipholus of Ephesus.
Luciana: Adriana’s sister.
Luce: Servant of Adriana.
First Merchant: Friend of Antipholus of Syracuse.
Pinch: Doctor who examines Antipholus of Ephesus after the later is jailed.
Second Merchant: Creditor of Angelo.
Minor Characters: Courtezan (courtesan), gaoler (jailer), officers, servants.
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Plot Summary
By Michael J. Cummings...© 2003

.......Meanwhile, unknown to Aegeon, Antipholus has just arrived in Ephesus, still looking for his brother. Wisely, Antipholus declares that he is from Epidamnum in order to avoid arrest. Antipholus has come to the right place, for his twin brother is indeed in Ephesus with the second slave—and a wife, Adriana. Here is where the play turns into a “comedy of errors,” for the brother of Antipholus is also named Antipholus, and the brother of Dromio is also named Dromio. Of course, no one in Ephesus is aware that there is one Antipholus who looks exactly like another Antipholus and one Dromio who looks exactly like another Dromio. 

The meat is cold because you come not home; 
You come not home because you have no stomach; 
You have no stomach having broke your fast; 
But we that know what ’tis to fast and pray 
Are penitent for your default to-day. (1. 2. 50-55) 

They say this town is full of cozenage, 
As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye, 
Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind, 
Soul-killing witches that deform the body, 
Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks, 
And many such-like liberties of sin. (1. 2. 100-105) 

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.......Unbending—even obstinate—loyalty brings families together in times of crisis. This serious message underlies the comedy. Aegeon and his son, Antipholus of Syracuse, refuse to give up on their lost family members, even after years of searching for them. In the end, the entire family is reunited.

Importance of Persistence

.......Persistence pays. Aegeon, Antipholus of Ephesus, and Dromio of Ephesus are all reunited with their loved ones after a long and unrelenting search lasting many years.

Happenstance in Everyday

.......Coincidences and mix-ups are part of everyday life and not magical or supernatural occurrences. The Comedy of Errors features two sets of twins: (1) Antipholus of Ephesus and Antipholus of Syracuse and (2) Dromio of Ephesus and Dromio of Syracuse. Dromio of Ephesus is the slave of Antipholus of Ephesus, and Dromio of Syracuse is the slave of Antipholus of Syracuse. Antipholus of Ephesus is unaware that he has a twin brother, Antipholus of Syracuse. And Dromio of Ephesus is unaware that he also has a twin brother, Dromio of Syracuse. Coincidences and mix-ups occur when all the twins converge in Ephesus. Antipholus of Ephesus mistakes Dromio of Syracuse for Dromio of Ephesus. And Dromio of Syracuse mistakes Antipholus of Ephesus for Antipholus of Syracuse. And so on. What is the meaning of all of these mix-ups? 
.......Apparently Shakespeare was attempting to debunk belief in witchcraft and sorcery, widely prevalent in his time. Here's why: During the play, the characters attribute the confusing mix-ups to the work of magicians and sorcerers. Ephesus appears to be bewitched. But by demonstrating that coincidences and mix-ups are part of everyday life, Shakespeare was showing his audiences that strange and seemingly inexplicable developments can occur under normal circumstances. Perhaps if Shakespeare had written the play in our time, the 21st Century, he would have tried to debunk belief in flying saucers, haunted houses, or the "miracle cures" of charlatan televangelists.
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.......In Act III, Shakespeare blends hyperbole and metaphor in a hilarious scene in which Dromio of Syracuse laments that a rotund cook is relentlessly pursuing him. After Antipholus of Syracuse asks him to identify her, Dromio says,

Marry, sir, she’s the kitchen-wench, and all grease; and I know not what use to put her to but to make a lamp of her and run from her by her own light. I warrant her rags and the tallow in them will burn a Poland winter; if she lives till doomsday, she’ll burn a week longer than the whole world. (3. 2. 88)

ANTIPHOLUS   What complexion is she of?  
DROMIO   Swart, like my shoe, but her face nothing like so clean kept: for why she sweats; a man may go over shoes in the grime of it.  
ANTIPHOLUS   That’s a fault that water will mend.  
DROMIO   No, sir, ’tis in grain; Noah’s flood could not do it. (3.2.89-92)

ANTIPHOLUS   In what part of her body stands Ireland? 
DROMIO   Marry, sir, in her buttocks: I found it out by the bogs. 
ANTIPHOLUS   Where Scotland? 
DROMIO   I found it by the barrenness; hard in the palm of the hand. 
ANTIPHOLUS   Where France? 
DROMIO   In her forehead; armed and reverted, making war against her heir.¹
ANTIPHOLUS   Where England? 
DROMIO   I looked for the chalky cliffs,² but I could find no whiteness in them: but I guess it stood in her chin, by the salt rheum³ that ran between France .......and it. 
ANTIPHOLUS   Where Spain? 
DROMIO   Faith, I saw not; but I felt it hot in her breath. 
ANTIPHOLUS   Where America, the Indies? 
ANTIPHOLUS   O, sir! upon her nose, all o’er embellished with rubies, carbuncles, sapphires, declining their rich aspect to the hot breath of Spain, who sent .......whole armadoes of caracks⁴ to be ballast at her nose. 
ANTIPHOLUS   Where stood Belgia, the Netherlands? 
DROMIO   O, sir! I did not look so low. (3. 2. 96-110)

.......Shakespeare occasionally casts conversations on trivial matters in rhyme, mimicking the sublimity of poetry and thereby further heightening the humor. Here are two examples, both from the first act. In the first example, Dromio of Ephesus and his master, Antipholus of Ephesus, are attempting to enter the latter's home. However, Dromio of Syracuse, who is inside, refuses to open the door.

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE  [Within.] Mome, malt-horse, capon, coxcomb, idiot, patch!  
.......Either get thee from the door or sit down at the hatch.   
.......Dost thou conjure for wenches, that thou call’st for such store,  
.......When one is one too many? Go, get thee from the door.  
DROMIO OF EPHESUS  What patch is made our porter?—My master stays in the street.  
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE  [Within.] Let him walk from whence he came, lest he catch cold on’s feet.   
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS  Who talks within there? ho! open the door.  
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE  [Within.] Right, sir; I’ll tell you when, an you’ll tell me wherefore.  
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS  Wherefore? for my dinner: I have not din’d to-day.  
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE  Nor to-day here you must not; come again when you may.   
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS  What art thou that keep’st me out from the house I owe?  
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE  [Within.] The porter for this time, sir, and my name is Dromio.  
DROMIO OF EPHESUS  O villain! thou hast stolen both mine office and my name:  
.......The one ne’er got me credit, the other mickle blame. (3.1.35-48)

LUCIANA  What! are you mad, that you do reason so?  
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE  Not mad, but mated; how, I do not know.   
LUCIANA  It is a fault that springeth from your eye.  
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE  For gazing on your beams, fair sun, being by.  
LUCIANA  Gaze where you should, and that will clear your sight.  
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE  As good to wink, sweet love, as look on night. (3.2.55-60)

.......Shakespeare's verbal bag of tricks includes a variety of figures of speech that vivify descriptions and observations. Among the passages containing memorable figures of speech are the following: 

Alliteration

For a fish without a fin, there’s a fowl without a feather (3.1.90)
Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word. (3. 2. 21)
Sing, siren, for thyself, and I will dote. (3.2.49)

Anaphora

The time was once when thou unurg’d wouldst vow  
That never words were music to thine ear,  
That never object pleasing in thine eye,  
That never touch well welcome to thy hand,   
That never meat sweet-savour’d in thy taste,  
Unless I spake, or look’d, or touch’d, or carv’d to thee. (2,2)

Metaphor

Methinks your maw, like mine, should be your clock  
And strike you home without a messenger. (1.2.69-70)
Comparison of the stomach (maw) to a clock.

There’s nothing situate under heaven’s eye  
But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky. (2.1.18-19)
Comparison of the sun to an eye.

For slander lives upon succession, 
Forever housed where it gets possession. (3. 1. 113-114)
Comparison of slander to a living thing. 

Oxymoron

The pleasing punishment that women bear. (1. 1. 48)
Pleasing punishment refers to pregnancy.

A trusty villain, sir. . . . (1.2.21)

Personification

When the sun shines let foolish gnats make sport,  
But creep in crannies when he hides his beams. (2.2.33-34)
Comparison of the sun to a person. 

Simile

Apparel vice like virtue’s harbinger; (3.2.14)
Comparison of vice to the appearance of virtue.

1. Adriana and her sister, Luciana, express opposing views on the role of women. Luciana believes women should submit to the will of men, who are “Lords of the wide world” (2. 1. 23). Write an essay that examines the role of women in society during Shakespeare’s.time. 
2. Comment on the extent to which Shakespeare uses dramatic irony—the failure of a character or characters to see or understand what is obvious to the audience—to achieve his comic effect.
3. Several characters believe sorcery is responsible for the strange happenings in the play. Do you believe people today, like the characters in the play, mistakenly attribute inexplicable or strange events to supernatural or preternatural causes?
4. Write an essay about the most incredible coincidences or most peculiar events that you have experienced. 

Notes

1. heir: Henry of Navarre, or Henry de Bourbonne-Navarre. In 1584, on the death of the brother of the King of France, Henry became first in line to inherit the French throne. Because Henry was a Protestant, Roman Catholics opposed his succession. Subsequently, the French king and the Holy League, a Catholic Organization, forged a treaty banning Henry from the throne. Henry went to war against the French and won a crucial battle in 1587. Later, after becoming reconciled with the French king, he acceded to the throne of France after the death of the king. In Dromio’s line, the word heir not only refers to Henry of Navarre but also to the kitchen wench’s hair, in a pun. 
2. chalky cliffs: Teeth of the kitchen wench, an implied metaphor in which her teeth are compared to England’s white cliffs at Dover.
3. rheum (pronounced ROOM): Discharge from the nose; mucus.
4. armadoes of caracks: Armadas of carracks (galleons).