The30MinuteShakespeare

CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY

The following is a list of characters that appear in this cutting of

The Comedy of Errors.

Twenty-six actors performed in the original production. This number can be increased to about thirty or decreased toabout twelve by having actors share or double roles.

For the full breakdown of characters, see Sample Program.

DUKE SOLINUS: Duke of Ephesus EGEON: A merchant of Syracuse YOUNG EGEON

JAILER

FIRST MERCHANT

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE DROMIO OF EPHESUS DROMIO OF SYRACUSE

Twin brothers, and sons to Egeon and Emilia

 

Twin brothers, and bondsmen to the two Antipholuses

ADRIANA: Wife to Antipholus of Ephesus

LUCIANA: Her sister ANGELO: A goldsmith SECOND MERCHANT

EMILIA: Wife to Egeon, an abbess at Ephesus

SERVANT NARRATORS

 

 

 

 

✴ SCENE 1. (ACT I, SCENE I)

A hall in Duke Solinus’s palace.

Stagehands set throne at an angle stage right, downstage of pillars, then set chair stage left, downstage of pillars andslightly facing throne.

Enter NARRATOR from stage rear, coming downstage center.

 

NARRATOR

Our play begins with Egeon sentenced to death for trespassing in Ephesus. He explains to the Duke how he became separated from his wife and two sets of twins.

Exit NARRATOR stage left.

Enter DUKE SOLINUS, EGEON, and JAILER from stage right. DUKE SOLINUS sits in throne. JAILER enters with EGEON in cuffs and stands center stage, facing EGEON, who is slightly downstage.

 

EGEON

Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall

And by the doom of death end woes and all.

 

DUKE SOLINUS

Merchant of Syracuse, plead no more; I am not partial to infringe our laws: Again: if any Syracusian born

Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies,

2 ✴ THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

 

Unless a thousand marks be levied, Therefore by law thou art condemned to die.

 

EGEON

Yet this my comfort: when your words are done, My woes end likewise with the evening sun.

 

DUKE SOLINUS

Well, Syracusian, say in brief the cause Why thou departed’st from thy native home

And for what cause thou camest to Ephesus.

 

EGEON

In Syracusa was I born, and wed Unto a woman, happy but for me,

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.

 

Enter EGEON’S WIFE and SONS from stage rear. The SONS stand on either side of their mother, upstage right.

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

Of such a burden, male twins, both alike:

Enter TWINS from stage rear, moving upstage left.

Those,—for their parents were exceeding poor,— I bought and brought up to attend my sons.

Enter YOUNG EGEON from stage rear. ALL move toward center, remaining upstage.

A league from Epidamnum had we sail’d, Before the always wind-obeying deep

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS ✴ 3

 

Gave doubtful warrant of immediate death; 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, To him one of the other twins was bound,

EGEON’S WIFE affixes one of her sons and one of the adopted twins to the right side of a long pole.

Whilst I had been like heedful of the other:

YOUNG EGEON affixes the other of his sons and the other adopted twin to the left side of the pole.

The children thus disposed, my wife and I, Fasten’d ourselves at either end the mast;

EGEON’S WIFE affixes herself to right side of pole, as YOUNG EGEON

affixes himself to the left.

We were encounterd by a mighty rock; Our helpful ship was splitted inthe midst. Her part, poor soul

Was carried with more speed before the wind.

The pole splits in half and the two groups exit the stage on their respective sides.

Thus have you heard me sever’d from my bliss; And happy were I in my timely death,

Could all my travels warrant me they live.

 

DUKE SOLINUS (stands)

Hapless Egeon, whom the fates have mark’d To bear the extremity of dire mishap!

But, though thou art adjudged to the death

4 ✴ THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

 

Yet I will favor thee in what I can. (motions for

JAILER to unshackle EGEON)

Therefore, merchant, I’ll limit thee this day; Beg thou, or borrow, to make up the sum, And live; if no, then thou art doom’d to die. Jailer, take him to thy custody.

 

JAILER

I will, my lord.

 

EGEON

Hopeless and helpless doth Egeon wend, But to procrastinate his lifeless end.

 

Exit DUKE SOLINUS stage left. EGEON and JAILER follow.

STAGEHANDS remove throne and chair, set bench downstage center.

 

 

 

 

✴ SCENE 2. (ACT I, SCENE II)

The Mart.

Enter NARRATOR from stage rear, coming downstage center.

 

NARRATOR

Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant, Dromio of Syracuse, have traveled to Ephesus in search of their long lost twin brothers and their mother. Antipholus gives money to Dromio of Syracuse. Dromio’s twin, Dromio ofEphesus, returns, and the confusion begins!

Exit NARRATOR stage left.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE, DROMIO OF SYRACUSE, and

FIRST MERCHANT from stage right. All stand in front of bench, with ANTIPHOLUS center, DROMIO to his right, andFIRST MERCHANT to his left.

 

FIRST MERCHANT

Therefore give out you are of Epidamnum; This very day a Syracusian merchant

Dies ere the weary sun set in the west. There is your money that I had to keep.

(hands bag of money to DROMIO)

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE

Many a man would take you at your word, And go indeed, having so good a mean.

6 ✴ THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE (to DROMIO)

Go bear it to the Centaur, where we host, And stay there, Dromio, till I come tothee. Within this hour it will be dinner-time: Get thee away.

Exit DROMIO OF SYRACUSE stage right.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE (to FIRST MERCHANT)

A trusty villain, sir, that very oft,

When I am dull with care and melancholy, Lightens my humor with his merry jests.

 

FIRST MERCHANT

Sir, I commend you to your own content.

Exit FIRST MERCHANT stage left.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE (walks downstage center)

He that commends me to mine own content Commends me to the thing I cannot get.

I to the world am like a drop of water That in the ocean seeks another drop, Who, falling there tofind his fellow forth, Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself: So I, to find a mother and a brother,

In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself.

Enter DROMIO OF EPHESUS from stage right.

Here comes the almanac of my true date.

What now? How chance thou art return’d so soon?

 

DROMIO OF EPHESUS

Return’d so soon! Rather approach’d too late: My mistress made it one upon my cheek:

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS ✴ 7

 

She is so hot because the meat is cold;

The meat is cold because you come not home.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

Stop in your wind, sir: tell me this, I pray: Where have you left the money thatI gave you?

 

DROMIO OF EPHESUS

To me, sir? Why, you gave no gold to me.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

Come on, sir knave, have done your foolishness, And tell me how thou hastdisposed thy charge.

 

DROMIO OF EPHESUS

My charge was but to fetch you from the mart Home to your house, thePhoenix, sir, to dinner: My mistress and her sister stays for you.

(gestures toward stage right)

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

What, wilt thou flout me thus unto my face, Being forbid? There, take youthat, sir knave.

(beats DROMIO with his hat)

 

DROMIO OF EPHESUS (covers face with hands and sinks to knees)

What mean you, sir? For God’s sake, hold your hands!

ANTIPHOLUS keeps hitting him; DROMIO is now lying on his back on the floor.

Nay, and you will not, sir, I’ll take my heels.

Exit DROMIO OF EPHESUS stage right. ANTIPHOLUS throws his hat after him.

8 ✴ THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

Upon my life, by some device or other The villain is o’er-raught of all my money. I’ll to the Centaur, to go seek this slave:

I greatly fear my money is not safe.

Exit ANTIPHOLUS stage right.

STAGEHANDS move bench to center stage, setting it at an angle facing stage right.

 

 

 

 

✴ SCENE 3. (ACT II, SCENE II)

Outside of Antipholus of Ephesus’s house.

Enter NARRATOR from stage rear, coming downstage center.

 

NARRATOR

Now Dromio of Syracuse, our first Dromio, comes back and has no idea why Antipholus of Syracuse thinks he was just there. They wind up at the house of Adriana, who thinks Antipholus of Syracuse is actually Antipholus of Ephesus,her husband and his twin—who we haven’t met yet. Confused? Good! So are they!

Exit NARRATOR stage left.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE from stage rear; he stands in front of bench.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

The gold I gave to Dromio is laid up

Safe at the Centaur; I could not speak with Dromio since at first

I sent him from the mart. See, here he comes.

Enter DROMIO OF SYRACUSE from stage right.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

How now sir! Is your merry humor alter’d? Jest with me again. You received no gold?

Your mistress sent to have me home to dinner?

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE

I did not see you since you sent me hence, with the gold you gave me.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

Think’st thou I jest? Hold, take thou that, and that.

(beats DROMIO with his hat)

ANTIPHOLUS chases DROMIO around the bench.

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE

But, I pray, sir why am I beaten?

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

For flouting me.

ANTIPHOLUS chases DROMIO again, hitting him with his hat. The chase ends with both sitting on the bench.

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE

Well, sir, I thank you.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

Thank me, sir, for what?

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE

Marry, sir, for this something that you gave me for nothing.

Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA from stage right. As ADRIANA

approaches ANTIPHOLUS, DROMIO gets up and stands behind bench.

 

ADRIANA

Ay, ay, Antipholus, look strange and frown: Some other mistress hath thysweet aspects; I am not Adriana nor thy wife.

 

ADRIANA grabs ANTIPHOLUS’S arm; he moves farther down the bench, and ADRIANA falls onto it.

Ah, do not tear away thyself from me!

For know, my love, as easy mayest thou fall A drop of water in the breaking gulf,

And take unmingled that same drop again, Without addition or diminishing,

As take from me thyself and not me too. (stands) How dearly would it touch me to the quick, Shouldst thou but hear I were licentious Wouldst thou not spit at me and spurn at me And hurl the name of husband in my face

And from my false hand cut the wedding-ring I know thou canst; and therefore see thou do it.

ADRIANA walks downstage center and addresses the audience.

I am possess’d with an adulterate blot;

My blood is mingled with the crime of lust: (sits again on bench, but not directly next to ANTIPHOLUS)

For if we two be one and thou play false, I do digest the poison of thy flesh,

Being strumpeted by thy contagion.

ADRIANA turns her back to ANTIPHOLUS and pauses. She looks over her shoulder at him and sees he is bewildered.She softens, moves back toward him on the bench, and holds his hand. He allows her to do it but remains confused.

Keep then fair league and truce with thy true bed; I live distain’d, thou undishonored.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE (lets go of her hand and stands)

Plead you to me, fair dame? I know you not.

LUCIANA

Fie, brother! How the world is changed with you! When were you wont to use my sister thus?

She sent for you by Dromio home to dinner.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

By Dromio?

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE

By me?

 

ADRIANA

By thee.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE (to DROMIO)

How can she thus then call us by our names, Unless it be by inspiration?

 

ADRIANA (stands, faces ANTIPHOLUS)

How ill agrees it with your gravity

To counterfeit thus grossly with your slave, Abetting him to thwart me in my mood!

(tries a gentler approach, holding his arm) Come, I will fasten on this sleeve of thine: Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE (walks downstage center,

addressing audience)

To me she speaks; she moves me for her theme: What, was I married to her in my dream?

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE (walks downstage center, addressing audience)

This is the fairy land: O spite of spites! We talk with goblins, owls and sprites.

LUCIANA

Why pratest thou to thyself and answer’st not? Dromio, thou drone, thou snail, thou slug,thou sot!

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE (to ANTIPHOLUS)

I am transformed, master; I am an ape.

 

LUCIANA

If thou art changed to aught, ’tis to an ass.

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE

’Tis true; she rides me and I long for grass. ’Tis so, I am an ass; else it could never be

But I should know her as well as she knows me.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell? Sleeping or waking? Mad or well-advised? Known unto these, and to myself disguised! I’ll say as they say and persever so,

And in this mist at all adventures go.

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE

Master, shall I be porter at the gate?

ADRIANA takes DROMIO by the ear and leads him stage right.

 

ADRIANA

Ay; and let none enter, lest I break your pate.

LUCIANA

Come, come, Antipholus, we dine too late.

 

Exit ADRIANA, LUCIANA, and ANTIPHOLUS stage rear. DROMIO looks to stage right entrance, looks to audience,shrugs, and exits stage right.

 

 

 

 

✴ SCENE 4. (ACT III, SCENE II)

Outside of Antipholus of Ephesus’s house.

Enter NARRATOR from stage rear, coming downstage center.

 

NARRATOR

Meanwhile, Antipholus of Syracuse falls for Luciana, who is the sister of Antipholus of Ephesus’s wife, Adriana, who thinks this Antipholus is her husband, but he isn’t. Are you following this? Don’t worry about it. Neither are they.

Exit NARRATOR stage left.

Enter LUCIANA and ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE from stage left. They stand in front of bench.

 

LUCIANA

And may it be that you have quite forgot A husband’s office? Shall, Antipholus,

Even in the spring of love, thy love-springs rot? Muffie your false love with some show of blindness: Let not my sister read it in your eye;

Comfort my sister, cheer her, call her wife: ’Tis holy sport to be a little vain,

When the sweet breath of flattery conquers strife.

(sits on downstage side of bench)

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

Your weeping sister is no wife of mine, Nor to her bed no homage do I owe

 

Far more, far more to you do I decline.

(sits next to LUCIANA on bench)

LUCIANA hesitates, enjoying the closeness, then turns to look at

ANTIPHOLUS. She stands and backs away a step.

 

LUCIANA

What, are you mad, that you do reason so?

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

Not mad, but mated; how, I do not know.

(stands; steps toward LUCIANA)

 

LUCIANA

Why call you me love? Call my sister so. (steps back)

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

Call thyself sister, sweet, for I am thee. Thee will I love and with theelead my life: Thou hast no husband yet nor I no wife. Give me thy hand.

ANTIPHOLUS takes a final step toward LUCIANA and takes her hand. He pauses.

 

LUCIANA

O, soft, sir! Hold you still: (lets go of his hand; turns away)

I’ll fetch my sister, to get her good will.

 

Exit LUCIANA stage left.

Enter DROMIO OF SYRACUSE from stage left, running and out of breath.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

Why, how now, Dromio! Where runn’st thou so fast?

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE

I am an ass, I am a woman’s man and besides myself.

(steps to the side; looks behind him)

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE (interested and amused)

What woman’s man? What is she?

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE

She’s the kitchen wench and all grease; (looks stage left) She is spherical, like a globe; I could find out countries in her. This drudge, or diviner, laid claim to me, call’d me Dromio;swore I was assured to her; told me what privy marks I had about me, as the mole in myneck, the great wart on my left arm, that I amazed ran from her as a witch.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE (to DROMIO, in a stage whisper)

Go hie thee presently, post to the road: I will not harbor in this town to-night:

If every one knows us and we know none,

’Tis time, I think, to trudge, pack and be gone.

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE

As from a bear a man would run for life, So fly I from her that would be my wife.

Exit DROMIO OF SYRACUSE stage right.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

There’s none but witches do inhabit here; But, lest myself be guilty to self-wrong,

I’ll stop mine ears against the mermaid’s song.

Enter ANGELO from stage right, holding a chain.

ANGELO

Master Antipholus,—

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE (startled)

Ay, that’s my name.

 

ANGELO (pause)

I know it well, sir, lo, here is the chain.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE (pause)

What is your will that I shall do with this?

 

ANGELO (pause)

What please yourself, sir: I have made it for you.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

Made it for me, sir! I bespoke it not.

 

ANGELO

Not once, nor twice, but twenty times you have. Go home with it and please your wife withal; And soon at supper-time I’ll visit you

And then receive my money for the chain.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

I pray you, sir, receive the money now,

For fear you ne’er see chain nor money more.

 

ANGELO (pause)

You are a merry man, sir: fare you well.

Exit ANGELO stage right.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

What I should think of this, I cannot tell:

 

I’ll to the mart, and there for Dromio stay If any ship put out, then straight away.

Exit ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE stage right.

 

STAGEHANDS remove bench.

 

 

 

 

✴ SCENE 5. (ACT V, SCENE I)

A street before a Priory.

Enter NARRATOR from stage rear, coming downstage center.

 

NARRATOR

Meanwhile, Angelo the goldsmith has met Antipholus of Syracuse’s twin,Antipholus of Ephesus, who has denied ever receiving a chain. Antipholus ofEphesus finally shows up, furious that he has been locked out of his house and abused. There is more confusion! We are praying for a happy ending!

Exit NARRATOR stage left.

Enter SECOND MERCHANT and ANGELO from stage right.

 

ANGELO

I am sorry, sir, that I have hinder’d you; But, I protest, he had the chain of me, Though most dishonestly he doth deny it.

 

SECOND MERCHANT

Speak softly; yonder, as I think, he walks.

ANGELO and SECOND MERCHANT hide behind stage right pillar. Enter ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE and DROMIO OF SYRACUSE from

stage right.

 

ANGELO (stage whispers)

’Tis so; and that self chain about his neck Which he forswore mostmonstrously to have. Good sir, draw near to me, I’ll speak to him.

(raises voice)

Signior Antipholus,

This chain you had of me; can you deny it?

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

I think I had; I never did deny it.

 

SECOND MERCHANT

Yes, that you did, sir, and forswore it too.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

Thou art a villain to impeach me thus: I’ll prove mine honor and mine honesty

Against thee presently, if thou darest stand.

 

SECOND MERCHANT

I dare, and do defy thee for a villain.

They draw swords and prepare to fight. Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA from stage right.

ADRIANA

Hold, hurt him not, for God’s sake! He is mad. Some get within him, take his sword away: Bind Dromio too, and bear them to my house.

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE

Run, master, run; for God’s sake, take a house! This is some priory. In, or we are spoil’d!

Exit ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE and DROMIO OF SYRACUSE stage

rear.

 

Enter EMILIA, the Abbess, from stage rear.

 

EMILIA

Be quiet, people. Wherefore throng you hither?

 

ADRIANA

To fetch my poor distracted husband hence. Let us come in, that we may bind him fast.

 

ADRIANA tries to exit stage rear into the Priory, but EMILIA blocks her way, no matter which path she tries.

 

EMILIA

No, not a creature enters in my house. He took this place for sanctuary.

Therefore depart and leave him here with me.

 

ADRIANA

I will not hence and leave my husband here: And ill it doth beseem your holiness

To separate the husband and the wife.

EMILIA

Be quiet and depart: thou shalt not have him.

 

Exit EMILIA stage rear.

SOUND OPERATOR plays Sound Cue #1 (“Fanfare”).

Enter DUKE SOLINUS and EGEON from stage right. EGEON stands in front of stage left pillar, his wrists bound by rope.

 

LUCIANA

Complain unto the duke of this indignity.

 

DUKE SOLINUS

Yet once again proclaim it publicly,

If any friend will pay the sum for him, He shall not die; so much we tender him.

 

ADRIANA (bows to DUKE SOLINUS)

Justice, most sacred duke, against the abbess!

 

DUKE SOLINUS

She is a virtuous and a reverend lady:

It cannot be that she hath done thee wrong.

 

ADRIANA

May it please your grace, Antipholus, my husband,

This ill day, a most outrageous fit of madness took him;

That desperately he hurried through the street, With him his bondman, all as mad as he—

Then they fled into this abbey, whither we pursued them:

And here the abbess shuts the gates on us.

 

DUKE SOLINUS

Go, some of you, knock at the abbey-gate And bid the lady abbess come to me.

I will determine this before I stir.

Enter SERVANT from stage right.

 

SERVANT

O mistress, mistress, shift and save yourself! My master and his man are both brokeloose,

ADRIANA

Peace, fool! Thy master and his man are here, And that is false thou dost report to us.

SERVANT

Mistress, upon my life, I tell you true.

 

Enter ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS and DROMIO OF EPHESUS from

stage right.

 

ADRIANA

Ay me, it is my husband! Witness you, That he is borne about invisible:

Even now we housed him in the abbey here;

And now he’s there, past thought of human reason.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS (bows)

Justice, most gracious duke, O, grant me justice!

 

EGEON (steps forward, addressing audience)

Unless the fear of death doth make me dote, I see my son Antipholus and Dromio.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS

Justice, sweet princess, against that woman there! She whom thou gavest to me to be my wife, Beyond imagination is the wrong

That she this day hath shameless thrown on me.

 

DUKE SOLINUS (stands, with ANTIPHOLUS to his right and

ADRIANA and LUCIANA to his left)

Discover how, and thou shalt find me just.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS

This day, great duke, she shut the doors upon me, While she with harlots feasted in my house.

(points stage left)

 

DUKE SOLINUS

A grievous fault! Say, woman, didst thou so?

ADRIANA

No, my good lord: myself, he and my sister To-day did dine together.

 

DUKE SOLINUS

Saw’st thou him enter at the abbey here?

 

ADRIANA

As sure, my liege, as I do see your grace.

 

DUKE SOLINUS

Why, this is strange. Go call the abbess hither. I think you are all mated or stark mad.

Exit LUCIANA stage rear.

 

EGEON

Most mighty duke, vouchsafe me speak a word:

(bows)

Haply I see a friend will save my life And pay the sum that may deliver me.

 

DUKE SOLINUS

Speak freely, Syracusian, what thou wilt.

 

EGEON (approaches ANTIPHOLUS)

Is not your name, sir, call’d Antipholus? And is not that your bondman,Dromio?

Why look you strange on me? You know me well.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS

I never saw you in my life till now.

 

EGEON

O, grief hath changed me since you saw me last, And careful hours with time’s deformed hand

 

Have written strange defeatures in my face: But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice?

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS

Neither.

 

EGEON

Dromio, nor thou?

 

DROMIO OF EPHESUS

No, trust me, sir, nor I.

 

EGEON (steps downstage center, addressing audience)

Not know my voice! O time’s extremity,

Hast thou so crack’d and splitted my poor tongue In seven short years, that here my only son Knows not my feeble key of untuned cares?

(turns toward ANTIPHOLUS)

Tell me thou art my son Antipholus.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS

I never saw my father in my life.

EGEON, devastated, stumbles back toward stage left and almost collapses from dismay.

Enter EMILIA from stage rear with ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE and

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE.

 

EMILIA

Most mighty duke, behold a man much wrong’d.

 

ALL gather to look at the men.

 

ADRIANA

I see two husbands, or mine eyes deceive me.

 

DUKE SOLINUS

One of these men is Genius to the other; And so of these. Which is the natural man, And which the spirit? Who deciphers them?

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE

I, sir, am Dromio; command him away.

 

DROMIO OF EPHESUS

I, sir, am Dromio; pray, let me stay.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

Egeon art thou not? Or else his ghost?

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE

O, my old master! Who hath bound him here?

(indignant)

 

EMILIA

Whoever bound him, I will loose his bonds

(she unties EGEON’S wrists)

And gain a husband by his liberty. Speak, old Egeon, if thou be’st the man That hadst a wife once call’d Emilia

That bore thee at a burden two fair sons: O, if thou be’st the same Egeon, speak, And speak unto the same Emilia!

EGEON

If I dream not, thou art Emilia:

If thou art she, tell me where is that son That floated with thee on the fatal raft?

EMILIA

What then became of them I cannot tell (pauses)

I to this fortune that you see me in.

 

DUKE SOLINUS

Why, here begins his morning story right; These two Antipholuses, these two so like, And these two Dromios, one in semblance,— These are the parents to these children, Which accidentally are met together.

 

ADRIANA

Which of you two did dine with me to-day?

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

I, gentle mistress.

 

ADRIANA

And are not you my husband?

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS

No; I say nay to that.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

And so do I; yet did she call me so:

And this fair gentlewoman, her sister here, Did call me brother. (to LUCIANA)

What I told you then,

I hope I shall have leisure to make good; If this be not a dream I see and hear.

 

ANGELO

That is the chain, sir, which you had of me.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

I think it be, sir; I deny it not.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS

And you, sir, for this chain arrested me.

ANGELO

I think I did, sir; I deny it not.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS

These ducats pawn I for my father here.

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESEUS offers a bag of money to DUKE SOLINUS, but the DUKE refuses it.

 

DUKE SOLINUS

It shall not need; thy father hath his life.

 

EMILIA

Thirty-three years have I but gone in travail Of you, my sons; and till this present hour My heavy burden ne’er delivered.

 

The rest of the cast and crew start to enter from stage right, left, and rear, as if the news has spread through thetown and they are coming to witness the twins and the reunion of the long lost family.

The duke, my husband and my children both, And you the calendars of their nativity,

Go to a gossips’ feast and go with me; After so long grief, such nativity!

 

DUKE SOLINUS

With all my heart, I’ll gossip at this feast.

 

THE TWO ANTIPHOLUSES AND THE TWO DROMIOS

We came into the world like brother and brother; And now let’s go hand in hand, not one before another.

 

Entire cast repeats the line at top volume, holding hands and facing the audience.

 

ALL

We came into the world like brother and brother; And now let’s go hand in hand, notone before the other!

 

ALL raise hands together with an increasingly loud cheer and take a bow. Exeunt.