Comedy of Errors.

А

COMEDY,

BY

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

ACCURATELY PRINTED

FROM THE TEXT OP

MR. STEEVENS'S LAST EDITION.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

Solinus, Duke of Ephesus.
Ægeon, a Merchant of Syracuse.

Twin Brothers, and Sons to Antipholus of Ephesus,

Ægeon and Æmilia, but Antipholus of Syracuse,

unknown to each other. Dromio of Ephesus,

}

Twin Brothers, and Attendants Dromio of Syracuse, on the two Antipholus's. Balthazar, a Merchant. Angelo, a Goldsmith. A Merchant, Friend to Antipholus of Syracuse. Pinch, a Schoolmaster, and a Conjurer.

Æmilia, Wife to Ægeon, an Abbess at Ephesus.
Adriana, Wife to Antipholus of Ephesus.
Luciana, her Sister.
Luce, her Servant.
A Courtezan.

Gaoler, Officers, and other Attendants.

SCENE, Ephesus.

COMEDY OF ERRORS.

ACT I. SCENE I.

A HALL IN THE DUKE'S PALACE.

Enter Duke, Ægeon, Gaoler, Officers, and other

Attendants.
Æge. 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 seald 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 us,
It hath in solemn synods been decreed,
Both by the Syracusans and ourselves,
To admit no traffick to our adverse towns:
Nay, more,
If any, born at Ephesus, be seen
At any Syracusan marts and fairs,
Again, If any Syracusan born,

B

Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies,
His goods confiscate to the duke's dispose;
Unless a thousand marks be levied,
To quit the penalty, and to ransom him.
Thy substance, valued at the highest rate,
Cannot amount unto a hundred marks;
Therefore, by law thou art condemn'd to die.
Æge. Yet this my comfort; when your words

are done,
My woes end likewise with the evening sun.

Duke. Weil, Syracusan, say, in brief, the cause Why thou departedst from thy native home; And for what cause thou cam'st to Ephesus.

Æge. A heavier task could not have been impos’d, Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable: Yet, that the world may witness, that

my

end Was wrought by nature, not by vile offence, I'll utter what my sorrow gives me leave. In Syracusa was I born; and wed Unto a woman, happy but for me, And by me too, had not our hap been bad. With her I liv’d in joy; our wealth increas’d, By prosperous voyages I often made To Epidamnum, till my factor's death; And he, great care of goods at random left, Drew me from kind embracements of my spouse: From whom my absence was not six months old, Before herself (almost at fainting, under The pleasing punishment that women bear,) Had made provision for her following me, And soon, and safe, arrived where I was. There she had not been long, but she became