6. The Comedy of Errors, by William Shakespeare, pp. 88-107

Act V

Scene I 


Angelo and the merchant encounter the Syracusan Antipholus and Dromio. Antipholus-S. is wearing Angelo's chain, which surprises the goldsmith, since Antiopholus-E. had denied receiving it from him. When the merchant angrily denounces Antipholus-S.  for having earlier denied having the chain, Antipholus calls him a "villain" for impugning his honor and challenges him to fight.

As both Antipholus and the merchant draw their swords, Adriana, Luciana and the courtesan enter. Adriana tells the merchant not to hurt him: "he is mad," and asks the men accompanying her to seize Antipholus and Dromio and take them to her house. Dromio urges Antipholus to take refuge with him in the nearby priory, and they do so.

The abbess emerges from the priory to quiet the crowd. Adriana pleads with her to let them come in and take Antipholus and Dromio away, explaining that her husband is "distracted." The abbess asks how long he has been mad, and Adriana says he has "been heavy, sour, sad" for a week, but this afternoon he broke out into an "extremity of rage." The abbess asks if he has suffered financial loss or the death of a friend, or if he has begun to indulge in "unlawful love, / A sin prevailing much in youthful men." Adriana admits that this last is the case, and the abbess suggests that Adriana hasn't been stern enough in rebuking her husband's infidelity.

On the contrary, Adriana says. She was constantly criticizing him for it: "In bed he slept not for my urging it, / At board he fed not for my urging it." Even when others were present, she says, she told "him it was vile and bad." And the abbess says that this is what has driven Antipholus mad: "The venom clamours of a jealous woman / Poisons more deadly than a mad dog's tooth." If he couldn't eat or sleep because of her nagging, no wonder he's gone mad: "The consequence is then, thy jealous fits / Hath scar'd thy husband from the use of wits."

Luciana defends her sister -- "She never reprehended him but mildly" -- and Adriana charges the abbess with tricking her into confessing that she caused Antipholus's madness -- "She did betray me to mine own reproof."  She tells the others to enter the priory and take Antipholus and Dromio, but the abbess bars the way: "He took this place for sanctuary." She will treat Antipholus "With wholesome syrups, drugs and holy prayers, / To make of him a formal man again." Adriana refuses to give up, "And ill it doth beseem your holiness / To separate the husband and the wife." But the abbess tells her, "Be quiet and depart, thou shalt not have him," and goes back inside.

Luciana urges Adriana to go plead her case to the duke, and the merchant observes that as it's five o'clock the duke will be there soon to carry out the sentence earlier pronounced on Egeon (remember him?), since "The place of death and sorry execution" is "Behind the ditches of the abbey here."

Sure enough, Solinus enters with Egeon and the executioner, and Adriana accosts him to voice her complaint against the abbess. She fibs a bit about the extent of Antipholus's "fit of madness," asserting that he did "displeasure to the citizens / By rushing in their houses; bearing thence / Rings, jewels, any thing his rage did like." The duke agrees to hear her side of the case because Antipholus had "serv'd me in my wars, / And I to thee engag'd a prince's word, / When thou didst make him master of thy bed, / To do him all the grace and good I could." So he starts to send for the abbess to hear the matter out.

A messenger hurries in to inform Adriana that Antipholus and Dromio have escaped, but not before singing off Pinch's beard and throwing "on him / Great pails of puddled mire to quench the hair." Adriana assures him that  they are here in the priory, but the messenger insists that he's telling the truth and that Antipholus "vows if he can take you / To scorch your face and to disfigure you. Solinus tells Adriana not to worry, as Antipholus-E. and Dromio-E. enter.

As Antipholus-E. addresses the duke, asking for justice, Egeon recognizes what he takes to be his son, Antipholus-S., and Dromio-S. Antipholus-E. continues his case against Adriana for locking him out of his house, which she stoutly denies and Luciana corroborates. And spotting Angelo, Antipholus-E. recounts the argument over the chain, as well as the attempted exorcism of Pinch and that he was bound "in a dark and dankish vault at home," where he gnawed through the ropes and escaped.

Angelo confirms that Antipholus-E. was locked out of his house, but he also insists that "when he ran in here / These people saw the chain about his neck." The merchant confirms that Antipholus was wearing the chain and adds that he had drawn his sword and was about to fight with Antipholus before he took refuge in the abbey. Antipholus-E. protests, "I never came within these abbey walls, / Nor ever didst thou draw thy sword on me; / I never saw this chain, so help me heaven." Dromio-E. confirms that Antipholus-E. dined with the courtesan at the Porpentine, and she attests that he took the ring from her finger, which he now admits.

Convinced that they are all "stark mad," Solinus now sends for the abbess. But Egeon steps forward to try to resolve his case: "Haply I see a friend will save my life, / And pay the sum that may deliver me." He asks the men he thinks are his son and his servant if their names are Antipholus and Dromio, and when they say yes, he says, "I am sure you both of you remember me." They don't, of course, and Dromio-E. asks if he is one of Pinch's patients -- i.e., a madman -- Egeon turns to Antipholus-E., who says, "I never saw you in my life till now."

Egeon thinks that age -- it has been seven years since he last saw them -- must have changed his appearance, but not his voice, but when they deny recognizing that he is distraught. "Tell me thou art my son Antipholus," he pleads, but Antipholus-E. assures him, "I never saw my father in my life." And Solonius assures him that he has been Antipholus's patron for twenty years, "During which time he ne'er saw Syracusa."

But then the abbess enters with the real Syracusan Antipholus and Dromio, causing a great stir. Antipholus-S. recognizes his father, and Dromio-S. asks who has bound his master. The abbess resolves everyone's questions: She is Emilia, Egeon's wife. After they were separated at sea, Emilia explains, fishermen from Corinth took Antipholus-E. and Dromio-E. from her by force. She went on to Epidamnum alone. Eventually, Antipholus-E. and Dromio-E. came to Ephesus with Solinus's "renowned uncle," Menaphon. Emilia presumably made her way there separately, without knowing that the Ephesian Antipholus was her son.

So they proceed to sort out the rest of the day's confusions, such as which Antipholus dined with Adriana and which was barred from the house, which one wooed Luciana and now hopes he "shall have leisure to make good," which one has the chain, which Antipholus sent which Dromio on which errand, and so forth. The courtesan gets her ring back and Egeon's ransom gets paid. The various brothers and parents are reunited.

_____

The conclusion of the BBC-TV production features Wendy Hiller, in a bit of lavish casting, as the abbess, Emilia.

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.

______

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.

_____

  

3. The Comedy of Errors, by William Shakespeare, pp. 19-39

Act II

Scene I 

Adriana is fretting to her sister, Luciana, because Antipholus hasn't come home for dinner yet, and it's two o'clock. (The last we heard it was about noon.)  Luciana tells her not to fret: Maybe he was held up on business, and after all, he's a man, and "A man is master of his liberty." This doesn't satisfy Adriana at all, of course, and she takes a defiantly feminist position: "Why should their liberty than ours be more?" The two sisters then launch into a back-and-forth session of stichomythia, in which each gets a line of verse that the other answers with a rhyme. 

Luciana then gets the first extended speech defending her view of a marriage in which the wife submits to the husband. As the notes remind us, the position she takes has the biblical authority of St. Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, echoed in the very setting of the play in Ephesus. She argues that "headstrong liberty is lash'd with woe," and that the subjection of wives has its source in natural law: "The beasts, the fishes, and the winged fowls / Are their males' subjects, and at their controls." (The Elizabethan pronunciation of "fowls" seems to rhyme with "controls," as it does with "souls" a few lines later.) 

The sisters set to with another bout of stichomythia after Adriana reports that this attitude is what keeps Luciana from marrying, and that if she were married she'd change her mind. And she launches into her extended replay to Luciana's praise of submission, arguing that Luciana counsels a kind of patience that Luciana herself doesn't have to bear:

A wretched soul bruis'd with adversity,
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;
But were we burden'd with like weight of pain,
As much, or more, we should ourselves complain:
So thou that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee,
With urging helpless patience would relieve me;
But if thou live to see like right bereft,
This fool-begg'd patience in thee will be left.

Luciana puts an end to the debate by noting the arrival of Dromio. Adriana begins to question him about Antipholus's tardiness, and Dromio tells her about the quarrel he has just had with Antipholus of Syracuse, making him think that his master (i.e., Antipholus of Ephesus) has gone mad. Adriana angrily sends him out to fetch her husband, and abuses the reluctant Dromio until he leaves. 

Adriana is convinced that she has lost her beauty and that Antipholus has found someone else. He has promised to bring her a "chain," i.e., a necklace, and she hopes that it will prove a token of his love. Luciana can only remark that Adriana's jealousy is getting hold of her. 

Scene II

Antipholus of Syracuse has been to the Centaur inn and found that Dromio has delivered the money with which he entrusted him, so he's feeling somewhat better. Dromio of Syracuse now enters, and is puzzled when Antipholus begins taunting him with the conversation he had earlier had with Dromio of Ephesus: 

How now, sir, is your merry humour alter'd?
As you love strokes, so jest with me again.
You know no Centaur? you receiv'd no gold?
Your mistress sent to have me home to dinner?
My house was at the Phoenix? Was thou mad
That thus so madly thou didst answer me?

Dromio-S. obviously has no idea what his master is talking about. His denials enrage Antipholus-S., who begins to beat him. Antipholus thinks Dromio has grown too familiar in his joking, but then they fall into a kind of vaudeville routine based on puns about basting meat and baldness, which continues for a while until Adriana and Luciana appear. 

Of course, Adriana thinks Antipholus-S. is her husband, and when he quite naturally recoils from being addressed as "my husband" by a woman he's never seen before, she laments their estrangement. She also expresses herself in terms that Antipholus-S. used in Act I, Scene II, when he compared his search for his brother as like trying to find a drop of water in the ocean: 

For know, my love, as easy mayst thou fall
A drop of water in the breaking gulf,
And take unmingled thence that drop again
Without addition or diminishing,
As take from me thyself, and not me too. 

Antipholus protests that he been in Ephesus only two hours, and can't possibly be the husband she is seeking. Luciana interjects that her sister sent Dromio to fetch him, which puzzles Dromio-S. "I never saw her till this time," he protests, to which Antipholus-S. replies, "Villain, thou liest, for even her very words / Didst thou deliver to me on the mart." And if she's never seen them, he asks, how does she know their names?

Adriana now thinks it wise to play the submissive wife, despite her earlier rejection of the notion: "Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine, / Whose weakness married to thy stronger state, / Makes me with thy strength to communicate." And Antipholus-S. decides that he's been bewitched and had better play along with it until he can break the spell:

To me she speaks, she moves me for her theme;
What, was I married to her in my dream?
Or sleep I now, and think I hear all this?
What error drives out eyes and ears amiss?
Until I know this sure uncertainty,
I'll entertain the offer'd fallacy. 

Dromio-S. is even more certain that some supernatural force is at work: "O for my beads; I cross me for a sinner. / This is the fairy land; O spite of spites, / We talk with goblins, elves and sprites." He asks Antipholus if he has been "transformed," and Antipholus replies, "I think thou art in mind, and so am I." But Dromio is convinced first that he's been turned into an ape, but when Luciana says, "If thou art chang'd to aught, 'tis to an ass," he agrees: "'Tis true, she rides me, and I long for grass." And so they go off to dinner with Adriana and Luciana.

_____

A 1978 TV version by the Royal Shakespeare Company featured Roger Rees as Antipholus of Syracuse, Michael Williams as Dromio of Syracuse, Judi Dench as Adriana, Francesca Annis as Luciana, and Susan Dury as Luce:

2. The Comedy of Errors, by William Shakespeare, pp. 1-18

Act I 


Scene I 


Solinus, the Duke of Ephesus, informs the Syracusan merchant Egeon that because of the conflict between Syracuse and Ephesus, all trespassers from Syracuse are subject to the death penalty unless they can pay a thousand marks in ransom. Egeon submits to the decree, which means he has only the rest of the day to live -- and as we'll find out shortly, it's getting on toward noon. 


Solinus wants to know why Egeon came to Ephesus in the first place, so Egeon tells him that some years ago he had gone to Epidamnum to take care of business, and had been joined there by his wife, who gave birth to twin boys. At the same time "A mean woman was delivered / Of such a burden male, twins both alike," so Egeon purchased them to be servants to his boys. 


On their way back to Syracuse, a storm came up, and when the ship began to sink, his wife bound one of their sons and one of the servant-twins to "a small spare mast, / Such as sea-faring men provide for storms." Egeon took care of the other two boys and he and his wife "Fasten'd ourselves at either end of the mast." Two ships appeared but before they reached them, the mast was split in two "by a mighty rock." Egeon saw his wife and the two boys swept away by the sea and picked up by a fishing boat. He and the boys in his charge were rescued by another ship, but it was unable to catch up with the fishing boat, and he was separated from his wife and the two boys. 


When the son who remained with Egeon turned eighteen, he decided to go in search of his twin, taking his servant with him. In the five years since then, Egeon has traveled through Greece and Asia Minor, and on his way back to Syracuse decided to stop in Ephesus to see if his son might have stopped there. 


Solinus is touched by Egeon's story, but he is honor-bound to enforce the law, so he gives Egeon until the end of the day to try to raise the money that will free him. Egeon doesn't have much hope that he'll succeed. 


Scene II


A merchant tells Antipholus of Syracuse that another merchant -- i.e., Egeon -- has been arrested in Ephesus, and that Antipholus should take care to let it be known that he's from Epidamnum. He gives Antipholus the money he owes him, and Antipholus sends his servant, Dromio, with the money to the Centaur, where they are staying. He tells Dromio that he'll be there shortly, as it's almost "dinner time" -- i.e., noon. 


When Dromio has left, Antipholus tells the merchant that Dromio is "A trusty villain, sir, that very oft, / When I am dull with care and melancholy, / Lightens my humour with his merry jests." He invites the merchant to join him for dinner, but the merchant has other plans, so they agree to meet at five o'clock. 


Antipholus then reflects to himself on his quest to find his brother: 

I to the world am like a drop of water
That in the ocean seeks another drop, 
Who, falling there to find his fellow forth, 
(Unseen, inquisitive) confounds himself. 
So I, to find a mother and a brother, 
In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself.

And lose himself he is about to do, as Dromio of Ephesus enters. Thinking that this Dromio is his Dromio, he asks why he's returned so quickly from the inn where they were supposed to meet. Dromio-E. tells him that it's noon and and his mistress (i.e., Adriana, the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus) is angry because dinner is getting cold and Antipholus-E. hasn't shown up for it. 


Antipholus-S. is puzzled by this, but more concerned about the money he entrusted to Dromio-S. Dromio-E. thinks he's talking about the sixpence he was given to pay the saddler, and Antipholus-S. thinks he's making some kind of joke. Dromio-E. is more concerned about the wrath of his mistress than about the money, and when Antipholus-S. demands to know what has happened to the gold he gave him, Dromio-E. denies that he was ever given any gold. 


Naturally, Antipholus-S. gets angry, especially when Dromio-E. keeps insisting that he was sent to fetch him for dinner: "My mistress and her sister stays for you." Antipholus-S. persists: "Now as I am a Christian, answer me / In what safe place you have bestow'd my money.... / Where is the thousand marks thou hadst of me." Dromio-E. replies that he has some "marks" from being beaten by Antipholus-E. and his mistress, "But not a thousand marks between you both." 


Antipholus-S. finally gets around to asking about this "mistress" Dromio-E. keeps talking about. "Your worship's wife, my mistress at the Phoenix," he replies, and Antipholus-S. starts to beat him. So Dromio-E. runs away, leaving Antipholus-S. to reflect that he has heard that Ephesus is "full of cozenage" as well as "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." He goes off to the inn to try to sort things out. 

_____

The 1983 BBC-TV production of The Comedy of Errors features Cyril Cusack as Egeon, Michael Kitchen as the Antipholuses, Roger Daltrey as the Dromios, Suzanne Bertish as Adriana, Joanne Pearce as Luciana, and Charles Gray as Solinus.