The Comedy of Errors

by William Shakespeare, T. S. Dorsch (Editor), Ros King (Revised by)

Overview

The Comedy of Errors has been popular on the stage during the last three centuries and has proved itself admirably suited to adaptation as pure farce and musical spectacle. For this updated edition, Ros King has provided a completely new Introduction to the existing text and commentary, in which she argues that the play cannot be regarded merely as a farcical romp based on a classical model, but belongs to the critically misunderstood genre of tragi-comedy. In stressing the seriousness which underlies the story, the Introduction picks out the play's religious imagery for special attention, whilst also engaging fully with the play's deft lightness of touch and its continuing popularity in the theatre. A fresh Reading List guides the reader towards further study.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781139836395
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/26/2004
Series:	The New Cambridge Shakespeare
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

Barbara A. Mowat is Director of Research emerita at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Consulting Editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, and author of The Dramaturgy of Shakespeare’s Romances and of essays on Shakespeare’s plays and their editing.

Paul Werstine is Professor of English at the Graduate School and at King’s University College at Western University. He is a general editor of the New Variorum Shakespeare and author of Early Modern Playhouse Manuscripts and the Editing of Shakespeare and of many papers and articles on the printing and editing of Shakespeare’s plays.

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

List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Preface to first edition; Abbreviations; Introduction by Ros King: Shakespeare's main source: Plautus's Menaechmi; Shakespeare's first tragicomedy; Shakespeare's schooling and the construction of The Comedy of Errors; Casting the twins; Verse form and metrication; The first known performance: Gray's Inn 1594; Later productions; Note on the text; List of characters; THE PLAY; Appendixes: 1. The performance of 1594; 2. Passages from the Bible; Reading list.

Editorial Reviews

Gorgeous new Shakespeare paperbacks.” 
—Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

“I have been using the Pelican Shakespeare for years in my lecture course—it's invaluable, the best individual-volume series available for students.”
—Marjorie Garber, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English and Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University 

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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