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| Antipholus (Andrew Houchins) |
Shakespeare wrote The Comedy of Errors, his earliest comedy and shortest play in
1594, and he showed great skill in incorporating elements from other literary
sources while making creative changes that made his play more compelling and
entertaining.
For this play, which was
first performed as the final entertainment for an evening of merriment for a
group of lawyers at Gray’s Inn, Shakespeare drew primarily from the Roman
playwright Plautus’ play, Menaechmi. Despite Ben Jonson’s claim that Shakespeare
knew “small Latin and less Greek,” Shakespeare certainly read the entirety of Menaechmi in Latin because there was no
English translation available in England in 1594. The preface to Menaechmi explains that a merchant from Syracuse took one of his
seven-year-old twin boys on a business trip abroad but was tragically separated
from him during a festival. The merchant
died from grief over his lost child, but the boy was found by a trader and
raised in Epidamnum. The surviving twin
boy, still living with his mother in Syracuse, was renamed Menaechmus to honor
his lost brother. The plot of Menaechmi centers on the confusion that
is created when Menaechmus of Syracuse comes to Epidamnum to search for his
lost twin. Menaechmus is perplexed when
he arrives in Epidamnum and is greeted warmly by the townspeople, and he is
delighted but befuddled when he is embraced by two women claiming to be his
wife and mistress. Meanwhile, Menaechmus
of Epidamnum is immensely frustrated that his friends and family, who have all
been interacting with his long-lost twin, believe he is mad. Menaechmi’s
influence on The Comedy of Errors is
evident in the plot of the two separated Antipholi, their experiences in
Ephesus, and their reunion.
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| Egeon tells the story of the twins! |
However, Shakespeare showed his incredible skill in
choosing what to take from another literary sources and what to create himself
in his additions to the Menaechmi
plot that make The Comedy of Errors
the hilarious, madcap, and touching play that it is. Shakespeare drew on the use of identical
slaves in Plautus’ play Amphitruo in
adding to the Menaechmi-inspired plot
two identical twin slaves, both named Dromio.
Shakespeare’s decision to name both slaves Dromio was his own invention,
and his choice led to the amusing moment in which the two Dromios are situated
on opposite sides of a door, both protesting that they are the rightful Dromio.
Dromio of Syracuse announces he is “The
porter for this time, sir, and my name is Dromio” (4.1.41-42), to which Dromio
of Ephesus replies “O villain, thou hast stol’n both mine office, and my name”
(3.1.43-44). Shakespeare also changed
the setting for the play from Epidamnum to Ephesus, which is a city that
Shakespeare’s audience would have associated with exorcism, cults, and sorcery. The audience’s knowledge of Ephesus would
have let them appreciate when Dromio exclaims “This is the
fairy land: O spite of spites!/We talk with goblins, owls
and sprites” (2.2.189-190). Finally,
Shakespeare added a touching element to the play by adding the characters of
Egeon and Emilia; their reunion at the play’s conclusion makes the reassembled
family complete.
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| Dromios reunited |
To learn more about Shakespeare’s sources for ASC’s
next play, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, check back on this blog during the
play’s opening week. To read more about
sources for The Comedy of Errors, take
a look at the introduction to The Comedy
of Errors in the second edition of The
Norton Shakespeare, from which the information in this blog comes. To see our Suzi-recommended production of The Comedy of Errors, contact the box
office at 404-874-5299 or purchase tickets on our website at www.shakespearetavern.com.
Posted by Samantha Smith
