About this title: Two sets of twins, both separated during a shipwreck that occurred 23 years before the present drama unfolds, convolute the absurd plot of Shakespeare's most farcical play. The composition of this, his shortest work, is commonly dated between 1592 and 1594; scholarship has placed its probable first performance on December 28, 1594 at the Gray's Inn, London. THE COMEDY OF ERRORS was included in the FIRST FOLIO, 1623, and is classified in Shakespeare's oeuvre as a comedy. The action precipitates in the course of a single day in three simple locations: the Phoenix, the Porcupine, and the Priory ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Dover Publications
Date Published: 09/2002
ISBN-13:9780486424613ISBN:0486424618
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 96 p. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Dover Publications
Date Published: 09/2002
ISBN-13:9780486424613ISBN:0486424618
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 96 p. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Dover Publications
Date Published: 09/2002
ISBN-13:9780486424613ISBN:0486424618
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 96 p. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Dover Publications
Date Published: 09/2002
ISBN-13:9780486424613ISBN:0486424618
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 96 p. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Dover Publications
Date Published: 09/2002
ISBN-13:9780486424613ISBN:0486424618
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 96 p. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Dover Publications
Date Published: 09/2002
ISBN-13:9780486424613ISBN:0486424618
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 96 p. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Date Published: 1969
ISBN-13:9780671739904ISBN:0671739905
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Signed by previous owner. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Dover Publications
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780486424613ISBN:0486424618
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 96 p. Dover Thrift Editions. Audience: General/trade. New and Instock read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1964
ISBN-13:9780140714326ISBN:0140714324
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Cover has very minor wear, pages are clean and unmarked. Glued binding. 124 p. Pelican Shakespeare (Paperback). Audience: General/trade. read more
"I just read this. It was easier to read than I expected and I liked the edition with text on one side and notes and helps on the opposite page. Very enjoyable easy reading."
"Got back from the Shakespeare Festival Sunday. I always try to read the plays before I go see them even if I've read them before. It makes the play much more enjoyable. Footnotes in the Arden editions often cover more of the page than the lines of the text, but I learn that way. Good read; great play!"
"Not an enormous amount to say about this one. It's slight, it's entertaining, I've seen it in performance and was rolling in the aisles. Reading the play means losing most of the sight gags, which makes the experience awfully incomplete. Arden tries to treat this text like a work of literature, pointing out the use of transformation, witchcraft, and the intervention of divine order in the form of the Abbess. These are all valid points but they don't really add much in the way of nuance to the story; to me all three are just superficial elements of plot. Like Richard III, this play feels like a transcript, a live performance's afterimage.
That being said, there were some parts just as delightful to read as to see performed. S. Dromio's description of Nell the kitchen maid is a total work of art, and I love the way Antipholus prompts him, dragging out the metaphor, snowballing the humor by refusing to punchline the joke. Also the play's final beat, the exchange between the two Dromios, has a tenderness and an emotional delicacy that is surprisingly affecting, even while being very funny.
The fantastic Chicago Repertory performance I saw had a framing story about a film production in the '40s - at the time I assumed they had abridged the play to make room for the new material, but now I'm pretty sure they didn't. It's a shortie play, in length and substance, and I think the Chicago Rep dealt with its shortcomings very admirably."
"I enjoyed this play. I have often heard the phrase "comedy of errors" and had a general idea of the plot. It was an easier one to read I think if one is starting out with Shakespeare. I was very pleased to see how it ended."
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