5. The Comedy of Errors, by William Shakespeare, pp. 61-87

Act IV

Scene I 


A merchant, accompanied by an officer of the law, threatens the goldsmith Angelo with arrest if he doesn't come up with the money Angelo owes him. Not to worry, Angelo says: Antipholus owes me the exact amount the merchant is demanding, and has promised to give it to him at five o'clock. The officer notices that Antipholus is coming their way now, but unfortunately it's Antipholus of Ephesus, who has no idea that Angelo has handed over the gold chain to Antipholus of Syracuse by mistake. Antipholus-E. is busy ordering Dromio-E. to go buy a length of rope that he plans to use as a whip on Adriana "and her confederates / For locking me out of my doors." As Antipholus notices that the goldsmith is there, Dromio hurries off on the errand.

Antipholus proceeds to chide Angelo for not delivering the chain to him at the Porpentine, but Angelo is determined to treat everything that he hears from this rather eccentric man as a joke -- as he did when he delivered the chain to Antipholus of Syracuse, who claimed to have no idea that he'd ever ordered a chain. So Angelo remarks on Antipholus-E.'s "merry humour" and asks him to pay for it now, since the merchant is in a hurry to get off to sea. "I am not furnish'd with the present money," Antipholus-E. replies, but if Angelo will take the chain to his house and ask Adriana for the money, everybody will be happy.

Fine, says Angelo. So give me the chain and I'll go to your house -- the merchant, after all, is in a hurry. Antipholus-E., who is already irritated because Angelo didn't bring the chain to him at the Porpentine, accuses Angelo of starting a fight over it. Angelo insists that he has already given Antipholus-E. the chain. Antipholus-E. is equally sure that he did no such thing. The merchant tries to intervene, and only confuses things further. Finally, the merchant orders the officer to arrest Angelo, and Angelo orders him to arrest Antipholus.

Dromio of Syracuse then walks into the middle of this melee to tell Antipholus-E. that he's arranged with the owner of a ship to take them to Epidamnum. Antipholus-E. says he sent him for a rope, not a ship, and promises to "teach your ears to list me with more heed," but first sends him to Adriana with a key to the desk in which "There is a purse of ducats; let her send it. / Tell her that I am arrested in the street, / And that shall bail me." Then he lets himself be taken off to prison, along with Angelo.

Dromio-S. certainly doesn't want to go back to Adriana's, for fear of encountering the globular Nell, but he obeys.

Scene II 


At Adriana's, she and Luciana are discussing Antipholus-S.'s attempt at wooing Luciana, who admits that he did so "With words that in an honest suit might move" -- a step toward hooking up Luciana with Antipholus-S. at play's end. Adriana denounces Antipholus, but when Luciana suggests she'd be better off without him, Adriana admits, "Ah, but I think him better than I say."

They are interrupted by Dromio-S., who is out of breath from having run to their house. (Perhaps a bit of theatrical humor directed at the obvious lack of distance from where we last saw Dromio on the stage.) He tells them that Antipholus has been arrested and needs the money from the desk as bail. Adriana sends her sister to fetch it, and dispatches Dromio to the jail with it.

Scene III


Antipholus of Syracuse enters, meditating on the way everyone in Ephesus seems to know him, and more and more convinced that the place is full of witches and "Lapland sorcerers." And then Dromio of Syracuse arrives with the money to bail him (or rather, Antipholus of Ephesus) out of jail. They talk at cross-purposes until a courtesan from the Porpentine enters and notices that Antipholus-S. is wearing the chain that she was promised by Antipholus-E. Both Antipholus and Dromio become convinced that she's a "devil" or "the devil's dam" or "a sorceress." The courtesan thinks they're joking, but what she really wants is the ring that she gave to Antipholus-E. at dinner. Either that, she says, or the chain, but Antipholus replies, "Avaunt, thou witch," and he and Dromio hurry away.

The courtesan is convinced that Antipholus has gone mad, especially after the story he told at dinner about being shut out of his own house, so she decides to go to his house "And tell his wife that, being lunatic, / He rush'd into my house and took perforce / My ring away."

Scene IV 


Antipholus of Ephesus is being escorted by the officer when he sees Dromio of Ephesus arriving, he thinks, with the money. Dromio, of course, knows nothing about this errand: He has brought the rope he was ordered to fetch. When he thinks that Dromio has spent the bail money for the rope, he starts to beat Dromio.  Then Adriana, Luciana and the courtesan, accompanied by a schoolmaster named Pinch whom they have enlisted to try to break the spell of madness they believe Antipholus to be under. Pinch asks for Antipholus's hand so he can feel his pulse, but Antipholus replies, "There is my hand, and let it feel your ear," and hits him.

Pinch begins an invocation to try to expel the devil from Antipholus, who turns on Adriana and asks if Pinch was the one who dined with her while he was shut out of the house. Adriana insists that Antipholus dined with her, so he asks Dromio whether he was locked out of the house. Dromio confirms that indeed he was, and that the kitchen-maid aided in shutting him out. (Foakes takes this as evidence that Luce and Nell are the same person. Not that it matters.) But when Adriana insists that she gave Dromio the money to bail Antipholus out of jail, Dromio denies it, swearing that the only thing he was sent for was a rope. At this, both Antipholus and Adriana turn on Dromio.

Pinch insists that both Antipholus and Dromio are mad and "must be bound and laid in some dark room." Finally, Antipholus turns his anger on Adriana and she insists that he be restrained. Several men lay hold of Antipholus, who struggles with them. Adriana wants him taken to her house, but the officer insists that Antipholus is his prisoner until the debt is paid. She agrees to pay it, and Antipholus and Dromio are taken off by Pinch and his assistants.

Left to talk to the officer, Adriana learns that Antipholus had been arrested for the debt he owed Angelo for the chain. The courtesan informs her that Antipholus has both a chain and her ring, so Adriana decides to go see Angelo to sort things out. But then Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse enter "with rapiers drawn" presumably they're afraid of anything they might encounter. Adriana thinks that Antipholus-E. and Dromio-E. have escaped, and the officer urges them to flee. Antipholus-S. is pleased to "see these witches are afraid of swords," and he tells Dromio to get ready to leave Ephesus.

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4. The Comedy of Errors, by William Shakespeare, pp. 40-60

Act III

Scene I 

Antipholus of Ephesus -- whom we see for the first time -- arrives home, accompanied by Dromio of Ephesus, the goldsmith Angelo and the merchant Balthasar. Aware that he is late for dinner, he warns them, "My wife is shrewish when I keep not hours." Evidently Dromio has told him about being beaten by Antipholus-S. and accused of having stolen a thousand marks, but Dromio persists in his story. But remembering his guests, Antipholus assures them that all will be well and that they'll be welcome for dinner. Then he's startled to find the gate barred, and orders Dromio to see to it that it's opened. 

Dromio E. then begins arguing with Dromio S., who is on the other side of the door. (This presents a little staging problem, especially after Dromio S. is joined by the servant Luce and later when Adriana appears inside the house.) Dromio-E. calls out for other servants to open the door: "Maud, Bridget, Marian, Cicely, Gillian, Ginn!" Evidently Antipholus-E. and Adriana have a large complement of female servants. Dromio-S. has been ordered by Adriana to guard the door well, so he refuses to open it. When Antipholus-E. asks who is barring the door, Dromio-S. answers, "The porter for this time, sir, and my name is Dromio." Dromio-E. is infuriated that someone has "stol'n both mine office and my name." 

When Luce, Adriana's maid, shows up on the other side of the door, Dromio-E., hearing her voice, asks her to let Antipholus in, but she says "he comes too late." (She seems to be unaware that Adriana is already dining with the other Antipholus.) Then Adriana enters and Antipholus-E., hearing her voice, calls out, "Are you there, wife?" Adriana denies that she's his wife and orders him to get away from the door, then exits with Luce. 

Angelo and Balthasar suggest that this isn't a good time for them to visit, but Antipholus-E. persists in trying to break the door in, asking Dromio-E. to "borrow me a crow," which occasions some confusion about why Antipholus wants a bird until he specifies "an iron crow." Balthasar tries to reason with Antipholus that he should take into account Adriana's reputation for virtue and assume that she has good reason for barring the door. People will talk, he suggests, if Antipholus makes a scene and breaks down the door. They should go dine elsewhere and come back later. 

Antipholus yields to the argument and says, "I know a wench of excellent discourse / Pretty and witty; wild and yet, too, gentle; / There will we dine." Evidently Adriana's suggestions that Antipholus is unfaithful to her are not unfounded. He tells Angelo to get the chain he has been planning to give Adriana and bring it to him at the Porpentine, "For there's the house -- that chain will I bestow / (Be it for nothing but to spite my wife) / Upon mine hostess there." Angelo agrees to meet him there with the chain in about an hour. 

Scene II 

Antipholus of Syracuse leaves the house with Luciana, who is pleading the case for her sister, telling him that even if he has fallen out of love with Adriana, he should not treat her harshly, but at least pretend to still be in love with her. "Apparel vice like virtue's harbinger; / Bear a false presence, though your heart be tainted." But Antipholus-S. has begun to fall for Luciana, and starts to woo her: "Less in your knowledge and your grace you show not / Than our earth's wonder, more than earth divine," which some think may be a flattering allusion to Queen Elizabeth, before whom the play may have been performed. He is also still somewhat persuaded that he is the victim of something supernatural: 

Are you a god? would you create me new? 
Transform me then, and to your power I'll yield. 
But if that I am I, then well I know 
Your weeping sister is no wife of mine, 
Nor to her bed no homage do I owe; 
Far more, far more to you do I decline.

It's Luciana's turn to think he's mad, and finally, after putting up with his wooing for somewhat longer than she really needs to, she goes off to fetch Adriana. Meanwhile, Dromio-S. runs in to say that he is being wooed by Nell, Adriana's "kitchen wench." (There is some discussion whether this is the same person, under a different name, as Luce, but since Nell never appears on stage, the confusion seems unnecessary. Given that we've already heard the names of six other female servants in the household, there's no reason that Dromio-E. wouldn't have been fooling around with several of them.) Nell, at any rate, Dromio-S. reports, is "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." There follows some shtick between Antipholus and Dromio about Nell's globe-shaped body and where the various countries might be found on her person; Shakespeare's only direct reference to "America" is included in the tour de Nell. Evidently Dromio-E. and Nell have been fairly intimate, for she describes to Dromio-S. some of the moles and warts the two Dromios apparently share, and he, "amazed, ran from her as a witch." This accords with Antipholus-S.'s suspicions about what is going on in Ephesus: 

There's none but witches do inhabit here, 
And therefore 'tis high time that I were hence; 
She that doth call me husband, even my soul
Doth for a wife abhor. But her fair sister, 
Possess'd with such a gentle sovereign grace, 
Of such enchanting presence and discourse, 
Hath almost made me traitor to myself; 
But lest myself be guilty of self-wrong, 
I'll stop mine ears against the mermaid's song. 

But then who should show up but Angelo, the goldsmith, with the chain he's delivering to the other Antipholus at the Porpentine. He gives it to Antipholus-S., who is, naturally, puzzled about it, but Angelo, thinking that Antipholus is joking, calls him "a merry man," and hurries off, saying he'll come back at supper time for the payment. Antipholus then goes out to see if there are any ships ready to set sail from Ephesus.

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