or possible Menæchmi; and if the piece be inferior in worth to other pieces of Shakespeare, it is merely because nothing more could be made of the materials." "

A like diversity of opinions has arisen concerning the immediate sources of the plot of this play. Mr. Collier has found out that an old drama, entitled The History of Error, had been acted at Hampton Cour., u uary 1, 1577, and probably again at Windsor, on Twelfth night, 1583. This he conjectures to have been taken as the basis of Shakespeare's comedy, and that parts of it, especially the doggerel verses, were interwoven with the Poet's work. The older play not having been recovered, nor any part of it, of course we have no means either of refuting or of verifying this conjecture. We may remark, however, that Mr. Collier seems a little too prone to suspect Shakespeare to have borrowed all his puerilities Another opinion supposes the Poet to have drawn from a free version of the Menæchmi published in 1595, as "A pleasant and fine conceited Comedy, taken out of the most excellent witty Poet Plautus." This version, to be sure, did not come out till after the Comedy of Errors was written; but then Shakespeare may have seen it in manuscript; for in his preface the translator speaks of having "divers of this poet's comedies Englished, for the use and delight of his private friends, who in Plautus' own words are not able to understand them." Nevertheless, we are far from thinking such to have been the case; there being no such verbal or other resemblances between the two, as, had such been the case, could scarce have been avoided. The accurate Ritson has ascertained that of this version not a single peculiar name, or phrase, or thought, is to be traced in Shakespeare's comedy. On the whole, we cannot discover the slightest objection to supposing, along with Knight and Verplanck, that the Poet may have drawn directly from Plautus himself; the matter common to them both not being such but that it may well enough have been taken by one who had "small Latin."

The Comedy of Errors is thus disposed of by Coleridge: "Shakespeare has in this piece presented us with a legitimate farce in exactest consonance with the philosophical principles and character of farce, as distinguished from comedy and from entertainments. A proper farce is mainly distinguished from comedy by the license allowed, and even required, in the fable, in order to produce strange and laughable situations. The story need not be probable, it is enough that it be possible. A comedy would scarcely allow even the two Antipholuses; because, although there have been instances of almost indistinguishable likeness in two persons, yet these are mere individual accidents, casus ludentis naturæ, and the verum will not excuse the inverisimile. But farce dares add the two Dromios, and is justified in so doing by the laws of its end and constitution. In a word, farces commence in a postulate, which must be granted."

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

SOLINUS, Duke of Ephesus.

EGEON, a Merchant of Syracuse.

ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus,

ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse,
DROMIO of Ephesus,

Twin Brothers, Sons to
Egeon and Æmilia.

Twin Brothers, Servants to

DROMIO of Syracuse, the two Antipholuses.
BALTHAZAR, a Merchant.

ANGELO, a Goldsmith.

A Merchant, Friend to Antipholus of Syracuse.
PINCH, a Schoolmaster.

EMILIA, Wife to Ægeon, acting as Lady Abbess. ADRIANA, Wife to Antipholus of Ephesus

LUCIANA, her Sister.

LUCE, Servant to Adriana.

A Courtesan.

Jailer, Officers, and Attendants.

SCENE, Ephesus.

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS.

ACT I.

SCENE I. A Hall in the DUKE's Palace

Enter DUKE, ÆGEON, Jailer, Officer, and other
Attendants.

Ege. 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 threatening looks.
For, since the mortal and intestine jars
"Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us,
It hath in solemn synods been decreed,
Both by the Syracusians and ourselves,
To admit no traffic to our adverse towns:
Nay, more, if any, born at Ephesus,
Be seen at any Syracusian marts and fairs;
Again, If any Syracusian born

Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies,

A gilder was a coin valued from one shilling and sixpence to two shillings.

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.
Ege. Yet this my comfort; when your words
are done,

My woes end likewise with the evening sun.

Duke. Well, Syracusian, say, in brief, the cause Why thou departedst from thy native home, And for what cause thou cam'st to Ephesus. Ege. 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,

3

And the 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

A joyful mother of two goodly sons;

And, which was strange, the one so like the other As could not be distinguish'd but by names.

2 That is, natural affection.

The old copy reads he: the emendation is Malone's.

:

That very hour, and in the self-same inn,
A poor mean woman was delivered

4

Of such a burden, male twins, both alike:
Those, for their parents were exceeding poor,
I bought, and brought up to attend my sons.
My wife, not meanly proud of two such boys,
Made daily motions for our home return:
Unwilling I agreed. Alas, too soon we came aboard!
A league from Epidamnum had we sail'd,
Before the always-wind-obeying deep
Gave any tragic instance of our harm:

5

But longer did we not retain much hope;
For what obscured light the heavens did grant
Did but convey unto our fearful minds

A doubtful warrant of immediate death;
Which though myself would gladly have embrac'd
Yet the incessant weepings of my wife,
Weeping before for what she saw must come,
And piteous plainings of the pretty babes,
That mourn'd for fashion, ignorant what to fear,
Forc'd me to seek delays for them and me.
And this it was, for other means was none. —
The sailors sought for safety by our boat,
And left the ship, then sinking-ripe, to us.
My wife, more careful for the latter-born,
Had fasten'd him unto a small spare mast,
Such as sea-faring men provide for storms:
To him one of the other twins was bound,
Whilst I had been like heedful of the other.
The children thus dispos'd, my wife and I,
Fixing our eyes on whom our care was fix'd,
Fasten'd ourselves at either end the mast;

The word poor was supplied by the editor of the second folio ⚫ Shakespeare uses this word with great latitude. An instance. however, is any thing present or at hand, and so may mean a warn ing, sign, or proof.

H