The Comedy of Errors

The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare is believed to be one of playwrights’ earlier plays. In 1623 it was first published in the First Folio from Shakespeare’s manuscript.  When was The Comedy of Errors written? Based on Menaechmi by Plautus the play was written in 1589–94. Some material from Plautus’s Amphitruo and the story of Apollonius of Tyre was added as well.

Entire play in one page

Act 1, Scene 1: A hall in DUKE SOLINUS'S palace.
Act 1, Scene 2: The Mart.

Act 2, Scene 1: The house of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus.
Act 2, Scene 2: A public place.

Act 3, Scene 1: Before the house of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus.
Act 3, Scene 2: The same.

Act 4, Scene 1: A public place.
Act 4, Scene 2: The house of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus.
Act 4, Scene 3: A public place.
Act 4, Scene 4: A street.

Act 5, Scene 1: A street before a Priory.

The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare, number of acts and scenes of the play, the characters of the play

Separated family and mistaken identity – these are the main themes revealed in the shortest Shakespeare’s comedy. Comic confusions emerge when twin brothers, unknown to each other, appear in the same town. The twists of plot of the comedy reveal Shakespeare’s mastery of construction and provide a storm of emotions like expectation, suspense, surprise and exhilaration.

As it was mentioned above, The Comedy of Errors is the shortest Shakespeare’s play. So, how many acts are in The Comedy of Errors? There are five acts in it. As for the number of scenes, every act includes at least two scenes. Introduction to the play will help to answer the question How many scenes are in The Comedy of Errors?

 The play begins with Egeon, a merchant of Syracuse, telling his story. But where does The Comedy of Errors take place?  The story is set in the Greek location, the city Ephesus, it is about two sets of identical twins who thirty-three years before  were accidentally separated in a shipwreck. After both being separated at both from their twins, Antipholus accompanied by his servant Dromio of Syracuse go to Ephesus to find them.

But when the Syracusans meet the friends and families of their twins that live in Ephesus, a series of wild failings based on mistaken identities provoke the arrest of Antipholus of Ephesus and false accusations of madness, infidelity, theft and demonic possession. The story ends by coming together of four twins, and all is finally resolved.

Character list of The Comedy of Errors:

• Solinus – Duke of Ephesus
• Egeon – A merchant of Syracuse – father of the Antipholus twins
• Emilia – Antipholus' lost mother – wife to Egeon
• Antipholus of Ephesus and Antipholus of Syracuse – twin brothers, sons of Egeon and Emilia
• Dromio of Ephesus and Dromio of Syracuse – twin brothers, bondmen, each serving his respective Antipholus
• Adriana – wife of Antipholus of Ephesus
• Luciana – Adriana's sister, love interest of Antipholus of Syracuse
• Nell/Luce – kitchen wench/maid to Adriana, Wife of Dromio of Ephesus
• Balthazar – a merchant
• Angelo – a goldsmith
• Courtesan
• First merchant – friend to Antipholus of Syracuse
• Second merchant – to whom Angelo is in debt
• Doctor Pinch – a conjuring schoolmaster
• Gaoler, Headsman, Officers, and other Attendants

Throughout the years the play The Comedy of Errors has been adapted numerous times for screen, opera, stage and musical theatre worldwide. The play's title has entered as an idiom the popular English lexicon. It implies "an event or series of events made ridiculous by the number of errors that were made throughout".