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COMEDY of ERRORS.

BY

WILL. SHAKSPERE:

Printed Complete from the TEXT of

SAM. JOHNSON and GEO. STEEvens,

And revised from the last Editions.

When Learning's triumph o'er her barb'rous foes
First rear'd the Stage, immortal SHAKSPERE rose;
Each change of many-colour'd life he drew,
Exhausted worlds, and then imagin'd new:
Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign,
And panting Time toil'd after him in vain:
His pow'sful strokes presiding Truth confess'd,
And unresisted Passion storm'd the breast.

DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.

LONDON:

Printed for, and under the direction of
JOHN BELL, British-Library, STRAND.

MDCCLXXXV.

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OBSERVATIONS

ON THE Fable AND Composition oF THE

COMEDY of ERRORS.

SHAKSPER AKSPERE certainly took the general plan of this comedy from a translation of the Menæchmi of Plautus, by W. W. i. e. (according to Wood) William Warner, in 1595, whose version of the acrostical argument is as follows:

"Two twinne-borne sonnes, a Sicill marchant had, "Menechmus one, and Sosicles the other

"The first his father lost a little lad,

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The grandsire namde the latter like his brother: "This (growne a man) long travell tooke to seeke "His brother, and to Epidamnum came,

"Where th'other dwelt inricht, and him so like, "That citizens there take him for the same:

"Father, wife, neighbours, each mistaking either, "Much pleasant error, ere they meet togither." Perhaps the last of these lines suggested to Shakspere the title for his piece.

In this comedy we find more intricacy of plot than distinction of character; and our attention is less forcibly engaged, because we can guess in great measure how the denoüement

will be brought about. Yet the poet seems unwilling to part with his subject, even in this last and unnecessary scene, where the same mistakes are continued, till their power of affording entertainment is entirely lost. STEEVENS.

Dramatis Personae.

MEN

SOLINUS, Duke of Ephesus.
ÆGEON, a Merchant of Syracuse.

ANTIPHOLIS of Ephesus,

ANTIPHOLIS of Syracuse,

DROMIO of Ephesus,
DROMIO of Syracuse,

Twin-Brothers, and Son's to Ageon and Emilia, but unknown to each other.

Twin-Brothers, and Slaves to the two Antipholis's.

BALTHAZAR, a Merchant.

ANGELO, a Goldsmith.

A Merchant, Friend to Antipholis of Syracuse.
Dr. PINCH, a Schoolmaster, and a Conjurer.

WOMEN.

EMILIA, Wife to geon, an Abbess at Ephesus.
ADRIANA, Wife to Antipholis of Ephesus.
LUCIANA, Sifter to Adriana.

LUCE, Servant to Adriana.

A Courtexan.

Jailer, Officers, and other Attendants.

SCENE, Ephesus.

COMEDY of ERRORS.

ACT 1. SCENE I.

The Duke's Palace. Enter the Duke of Ephesus, ÆGEON, Jailer, and other Attendants.

Ægeon.

PROCEED, Solinus, to procure my fall,

And, by the doom of death, end woes and all.
Duke. Merchant of Syracusa, plead no more;

I am not partial, to infringe our laws :
The enmity and discord, which of late
Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your duke
To merchants, our well-dealing countrymen,→
Who, wanting gilders to redeem their lives,
Have seal'd his rigorous statutes with their bloods,
Excludes all pity from our threat'ning looks.
For, since the mortal and intestine jars
'Twixt thy seditious countrymen and iis,

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