The Comedy of Errors

by William Shakespeare

Overview

The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9786057876836
Publisher:	E-Kitap Projesi & Cheapest Books
Publication date:	01/01/1900
Pages:	132
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.31(d)

About the Author

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard").
His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623 two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's. Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century.
The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakes-peare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

Other Books of Shakespeare:
• Romeo and Juliet (1597)
• Hamlet (1599)
• Macbeth (1606)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596)
• Julius Caesar (1599)
• Othello (1603)
• The Merchant of Venice (1598)
• King Lear (1606)
• The Taming of the Shrew (1594)
• The Comedy of Errors (1594)

Date of Death:

2018

Place of Birth:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Place of Death:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

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The Comedy of Errors
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Table of Contents

About Author:

Act I

SCENE I. A hall in DUKE SOLINUS'S palace.

SCENE II. The Mart.

Act II

SCENE I. The house of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus.

SCENE II. A public place.

Act III

SCENE I. Before the house of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus.

SCENE II. The same.

Act IV

SCENE I. A public place.

SCENE II. The house of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus.

SCENE III. A public place.

SCENE IV. A street.

Act V

SCENE I. A street before a Priory.

Editorial Reviews

"O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note,

to drown me in thy sister’s flood of tears."

"Until I know this sure uncertainty,

I'll entertain the offered fallacy."

"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."

"If the skin were parchment and the blows you gave were ink,

Your own handwriting would tell you what I think."

― William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors

From the Publisher

In The Comedy of Errors we seem almost to stand again by the cradle of new-born comedy, and hear the first lisping and laughing accents run over from her baby lips in bubbling rhyme; but when the note changes we recognize the speech of gods.”

A Study of Shakespeare

Gr 6–9—These brief adaptations of individual plays have attractive, full-color panels illustrating the action and incorporating dialogue taken directly from the scripts. Each volume includes a cast list, a brief description of the setting, a short summary and analysis of the play, several famous phrases, a biography of the Bard, and list of his additional works. The artwork for As You Like It, Cymbeline, and The Comedy of Errors is done in a light palette of bright colors and pastels nicely suited to the subject matter, with characters drawn in a style heavily influenced by Japanese manga. Allen's illustrations for Henry VIII are more workmanlike and are in dark colors with numerous touches of royal purple. These books would probably work best as introductions to the plays for younger students or reluctant readers, as the additional materials and analysis are very basic. However, Cymbeline and Henry VIII seem odd choices for graphic adaptations for this age group, given that they are seldom if ever taught at the middle or high school level. As You Like It and The Comedy of Errors would probably receive more use. Purchase where needed.—Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ

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