The Comedy of Errors | Page 3

so long as
*EITHER*:
[*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
does *not* contain characters other than those
intended by the author

of the work, although tilde (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters
may be used to convey punctuation intended by the
author, and
additional characters may be used to
indicate hypertext links; OR
[*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent form by the
program that displays the etext (as is the case, for instance, with most
word processors); OR
[*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the etext in its original
plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC or other equivalent proprietary form).
[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
"Small Print!" statement.
[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the
net profits you derive calculated using the method you already use to
calculate your applicable taxes. If you don't derive profits, no royalty is
due. Royalties are payable to "Project Gutenberg
Association/Carnegie-Mellon University" within the 60 days following
each
date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) your
annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU
DON'T HAVE TO? The Project gratefully accepts contributions in
money, time, scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts,
royalty free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution you
can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg Association /
Carnegie-Mellon University".
*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN
ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*

This etext was prepared by the PG Shakespeare Team,
a team of
about twenty Project Gutenberg volunteers.
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
by William Shakespeare
PERSONS REPRESENTED.
SOLINUS, Duke of Ephesus.
AEGEON, a Merchant of Syracuse.

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS, Twin brothers and sons to Aegion and
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE, and Aemelia, but unknown to each
other.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS, Twin brothers, and attendants on

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE, the two Antipholuses.
BALTHAZAR, a Merchant.
ANGELO, a Goldsmith.
A
MERCHANT, friend to Antipholus of Syracuse.
PINCH, a
Schoolmaster and a Conjurer.
AEMILIA, Wife to Aegeon, an Abbess at Ephesus.
ADRIANA, Wife
to Antipholus of Ephesus.
LUCIANA, her Sister.
LUCE, her
Servant.
A COURTEZAN
Gaoler, Officers, Attendants
SCENE: Ephesus
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
ACT I.
SCENE 1. A hall in the DUKE'S palace.
[Enter the DUKE, AEGEON, GAOLER, OFFICERS, and other
ATTENDANTS.]

AEGEON.
Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall,
And, by the doom
of death, end woes and all.
DUKE.
Merchant of Syracuse, 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 guilders 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 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,
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.
AEGEON.
Yet this my comfort,--when your words are done,
My
woes end likewise with the evening sun.
DUKE.
Well, Syracusan, say, in brief, the cause
Why thou
departedst from thy native home,
And for what cause thou cam'st to
Ephesus.
AEGEON.
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 Syracuse 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 had she 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 disdnguish'd but by
names.
That very hour, and in the self-same inn,
A mean woman
was delivered
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;
But longer did we not retain much hope:
For