finished_summaries/sparknotes/The Comedy of Errors/section_1_part_0.txt
The Comedy of Errors.act i.scene ii
act i, scene ii; act ii, scene i
{"name": "Act I, scene ii; Act II, scene i", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20210224233119/https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/errors/section2/", "summary": "Egeon's son, Antipholus of Syracuse, is also in Ephesus, although neither he nor his father is aware of the other's presence. A friendly Merchant warns Antipholus about the law concerning Syracusans and advises him to pretend to be from another city in order to avoid arrest. Antipholus thanks him and sends his servant, Dromio of Syracuse, to the Centaur Inn with their money  and luggage. Left alone, he muses on his unhappiness, caused by his fruitless quest for his brother and mother. Unknown to anyone, however, his missing brother is actually a prosperous citizen of Ephesus, served by his own Dromio of Ephesus. Antipholus of Ephesus is married to a woman named Adriana, and he is a great favorite of Duke Solinus. As Antipholus of Syracuse muses, Dromio of Ephesus appears and demands that his \"master\" come home to dinner. He has mistaken this Antipholus for Antipholus of Ephesus, and Antipholus S., in turn, mistakes this Dromio for his own servant. Their misunderstanding leads to an argument--Dromio E. insists that Antipholus S. return to their house because his wife is impatient with him, while Antipholus S. demands to know what has become of their money and belongings. Eventually, the master slaps the slave, and Dromio E. flees, leaving his master to remark that Ephesus is reportedly full of sorcerers and that one must have bewitched his man. Fearing for the safety of his possessions, he hurries off in the direction of the Centaur Inn. The scene now shifts to a conversation between Adriana, the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, and her sister Luciana. Adriana is anxiously awaiting the return of her husband--and his slave, who she sent out after him. Luciana rebukes her for being impatient, saying that a dutiful wife should be a docile servant to her husband. Adriana retorts that Luciana speaks without experience--that once she is married, she will have a different point of view. As they debate, Dromio of Ephesus returns and reports the bizarre behavior of his master , saying that Antipholus is mad and will talk of nothing but his gold. Furious, Adriana threatens to beat him unless he brings her husband back, and Dromio reluctantly goes out again. Once he is gone, Adriana tells her sister that Antipholus must have taken a lover--that is the only explanation for his absence and peculiar behavior.", "analysis": "Commentary Antipholus of Syracuse is a stronger, more interesting character than his brother, if only because Shakespeare allows him emotions larger than the confusion and anger that Antipholus of Ephesus expresses. Here, we see Antipholus S. experiencing a kind of angst or spiritual incompleteness brought on by the absence of his twin and mother--\"I to the world am like a drop of water,\" he says, \"that in the ocean seeks another drop, / Who falling there to find his fellow forth, / Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself. / So I, to find a mother and a brother, / In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself\". His sense of alienation and loss of self will only increase as the play continues, and he begins to doubt his own identity amid the confusion. The violence between master and slave when Antipholus strikes his brother's Dromio, believing him to be his own slave, establishes a pattern for the play, as both Dromios  complain of the heavy hands of the master--and mistress, since Adriana also is not averse to slapping Dromio around. These beatings are usually played for laughs, however, and it is significant that in a play filled with ropes, drawn swords, and threats no one really gets hurt. Meanwhile, the description that Antipholus gives of Ephesus as \"a town full of cozenage: / As nimble jugglers that deceive the eye, / Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind, / soul-killing witches that deform the body / ... And many such-like liberties of sin\", would have resonated with an Elizabethan audience well-versed in the Bible; in the New Testament, the apostle Paul travels to Ephesus and finds the city full of witchcraft. This theme of enchantment, which, far from being benign, is directly associated with \"sin,\" will be returned to throughout the play, since magic seems to be the only sensible explanation for the peculiar events. The argument between Adriana and Luciana establishes their chief character traits: Adriana is clearly a jealous, shrewish wife in the tradition of Shakespeare's own The Taming of the Shrew, but despite her faults, she is a more sympathetic character than the docile, preachy Luciana, whose advice to women is to practice patience and subservience. While Luciana offers the conventional wisdom of Shakespeare's day, the playwright undermines these notions; the problems between husband and wife in The Comedy of Errors stem not from Adriana's jealousy or lack of obedience but from the fact that for a time, at least, she seems to have two husbands. Indeed, her behavior seems appropriate to the mixed- up situation; obedience is all very well, but to which man must she be obedient?"}
_SCENE II. 

The Mart._

  _Enter _ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse_, _DROMIO of Syracuse_, and
  _First Merchant_._

_First Mer._ Therefore give out you are of Epidamnum,
Lest that your goods too soon be confiscate.
This very day a Syracusian merchant
Is apprehended for arrival here;
And, not being able to buy out his life,                             5
According to the statute of the town,
Dies ere the weary sun set in the west.
There is your money that I had to keep.

_Ant. S._ Go bear it to the Centaur, where we host,
And stay there, Dromio, till I come to thee.                        10
Within this hour it will be dinner-time:
Till that. I'll view the manners of the town,
Peruse the traders, gaze upon the buildings,
And then return, and sleep within mine inn;
For with long travel I am stiff and weary.                          15
Get thee away.

_Dro. S._ Many a man would take you at your word,
And go indeed, having so good a mean.    [_Exit._

_Ant. S._ A trusty villain, sir; that very oft,
When I am dull with care and melancholy,                            20
Lightens my humour with his merry jests.
What, will you walk with me about the town,
And then go to my inn, and dine with me?

_First Mer._ I am invited, sir, to certain merchants,
Of whom I hope to make much benefit;                                25
I crave your pardon. Soon at five o'clock,
Please you, I'll meet with you upon the mart,
And afterward consort you till bed-time:
My present business calls me from you now.

_Ant. S._ Farewell till then: I will go lose myself,                30
And wander up and down to view the city.

_First Mer._ Sir, I commend you to your own content.    [_Exit._

_Ant. S._ 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,                             35
That in the ocean seeks another drop;
Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,
Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself:
So I, to find a mother and a brother,
In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself.                             40

  _Enter _DROMIO of Ephesus_._

Here comes the almanac of my true date.
What now? how chance thou art return'd so soon?

_Dro. E._ Return'd so soon! rather approach'd too late:
The capon burns, the pig falls from the spit;
The clock hath strucken twelve upon the bell;                       45
My mistress made it one upon my cheek:
She is so hot, because the meat is cold;
The meat is cold, because you come not home;
You come not home, because you have no stomach;
You have no stomach, having broke your fast;                        50
But we, that know what 'tis to fast and pray,
Are penitent for your default to-day.

_Ant. S._ Stop in your wind, sir: tell me this, I pray:
Where have you left the money that I gave you?

_Dro. E._ O,--sixpence, that I had o' Wednesday last                55
To pay the saddler for my mistress' crupper?
The saddler had it, sir; I kept it not.

_Ant. S._ I am not in a sportive humour now:
Tell me, and dally not, where is the money?
We being strangers here, how darest thou trust                      60
So great a charge from thine own custody?

_Dro. E._ I pray you, jest, sir, as you sit at dinner:
I from my mistress come to you in post;
If I return, I shall be post indeed,
For she will score your fault upon my pate.                         65
Methinks your maw, like mine, should be your clock,
And strike you home without a messenger.

_Ant. S._ Come, Dromio, come, these jests are out of season;
Reserve them till a merrier hour than this.
Where is the gold I gave in charge to thee?                         70

_Dro. E._ To me, sir? why, you gave no gold to me.

_Ant. S._ Come on, sir knave, have done your foolishness,
And tell me how thou hast disposed thy charge.

_Dro. E._ My charge was but to fetch you from the mart
Home to your house, the Phoenix, sir, to dinner:                    75
My mistress and her sister stays for you.

_Ant. S._ Now, as I am a Christian, answer me,
In what safe place you have bestow'd my money;
Or I shall break that merry sconce of yours,
That stands on tricks when I am undisposed:                         80
Where is the thousand marks thou hadst of me?

_Dro. E._ I have some marks of yours upon my pate,
Some of my mistress' marks upon my shoulders;
But not a thousand marks between you both.
If I should pay your worship those again,                           85
Perchance you will not bear them patiently.

_Ant. S._ Thy mistress' marks? what mistress, slave, hast thou?

_Dro. E._ Your worship's wife, my mistress at the Phoenix;
She that doth fast till you come home to dinner,
And prays that you will hie you home to dinner.                     90

_Ant. S._ What, wilt thou flout me thus unto my face,
Being forbid? There, take you that, sir knave.

_Dro. E._ What mean you, sir? for God's sake, hold your hands!
Nay, an you will not, sir, I'll take my heels.    [_Exit._

_Ant. S._ Upon my life, by some device or other                     95
The villain is o'er-raught of all my money.
They say this town is full of cozenage;
As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye,
Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind.
Soul-killing witches that deform the body,                         100
Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks,
And many such-like liberties of sin:
If it prove so, I will be gone the sooner.
I'll to the Centaur, to go seek this slave:
I greatly fear my money is not safe.    [_Exit._                   105



  NOTES: I, 2.

  SCENE II.] Pope. No division in Ff.
  The Mart.] Edd. A public place. Capell. The Street. Pope.
    See note (II).
  Enter ...] Enter Antipholis Erotes, a Marchant, and Dromio. Ff.
  4: _arrival_] _a rivall_ F1.
  10: _till_] _tell_ F2.
  11, 12: The order of these lines is inverted by F2 F3 F4.
  12: _that_] _then_ Collier MS.
  18: _mean_] F1. _means_ F2 F3 F4.
  23: _my_] F1. _the_ F2 F3 F4.
  28: _consort_] _consort with_ Malone conj.
  30: _myself_] F1. _my life_ F2 F3 F4.
  33: SCENE III. Pope.
  _mine_] F1. _my_ F2 F3 F4.
  37: _falling_] _failing_ Barron Field conj.
  37, 38: _fellow forth, Unseen,_] _fellow, for Th' unseen_ Anon. conj.
  38: _Unseen,_] _In search_ Spedding conj.
  _Unseen, inquisitive,_] _Unseen inquisitive!_ Staunton.
  40: _them_] F1. _him_ F2 F3 F4.
  _unhappy_,] F2 F3 F4. (_unhappie a_) F1. _unhappier_, Edd. conj.
  65: _score_] Rowe. _scoure_ F1 F2 F3. _scour_ F4.
  66: _your clock_] Pope. _your cooke_ F1. _you cooke_ F2.
    _your cook_ F3 F4.
  76: _stays_] _stay_ Rowe.
  86: _will_] _would_ Collier MS.
  93: _God's_] Hanmer. _God_ Ff.
  96: _o'er-raught_] Hanmer. _ore-wrought_ Ff.
  99: _Dark-working_] _Drug-working_ Warburton.
  99, 100: _Dark-working ... Soul-killing_] _Soul-killing ...
    Dark-working_ Johnson conj.
  100: _Soul-killing_] _Soul-selling_ Hanmer.
  102: _liberties_] _libertines_ Hanmer.



ACT II. _SCENE I.

The house of _ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus_._

  _Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA._

_Adr._ Neither my husband nor the slave return'd,
That in such haste I sent to seek his master!
Sure, Luciana, it is two o'clock.

_Luc._ Perhaps some merchant hath invited him,
And from the mart he's somewhere gone to dinner.                     5
Good sister, let us dine, and never fret:
A man is master of his liberty:
Time is their master; and when they see time,
They'll go or come: if so, be patient, sister.

_Adr._ Why should their liberty than ours be more?                  10

_Luc._ Because their business still lies out o' door.

_Adr._ Look, when I serve him so, he takes it ill.

_Luc._ O, know he is the bridle of your will.

_Adr._ There's none but asses will be bridled so.

_Luc._ Why, headstrong liberty is lash'd with woe.                  15
There's nothing situate under heaven's eye
But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky:
The beasts, the fishes, and the winged fowls,
Are their males' subjects and at their controls:
Men, more divine, the masters of all these,                         20
Lords of the wide world and wild watery seas,
Indued with intellectual sense and souls,
Of more pre-eminence than fish and fowls,
Are masters to their females, and their lords:
Then let your will attend on their accords.                         25

_Adr._ This servitude makes you to keep unwed.

_Luc._ Not this, but troubles of the marriage-bed.

_Adr._ But, were you wedded, you would bear some sway.

_Luc._ Ere I learn love, I'll practise to obey.

_Adr._ How if your husband start some other where?                  30

_Luc._ Till he come home again, I would forbear.

_Adr._ Patience unmoved! no marvel though she pause;
They can be meek that have no other cause.
A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;                                35
But were we burden'd with like weight of pain,
As much, or more, we should ourselves complain:
So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee,
With urging helpless patience wouldst relieve me;
But, if thou live to see like right bereft,                         40
This fool-begg'd patience in thee will be left.

_Luc._ Well, I will marry one day, but to try.
Here comes your man; now is your husband nigh.

  _Enter _DROMIO of Ephesus_._

_Adr._ Say, is your tardy master now at hand?

_Dro. E._ Nay, he's at two hands with me, and that my               45
two ears can witness.

_Adr._ Say, didst thou speak with him? know'st thou his mind?

_Dro. E._ Ay, ay, he told his mind upon mine ear:
Beshrew his hand, I scarce could understand it.

_Luc._ Spake he so doubtfully, thou couldst not feel his            50
meaning?

_Dro. E._ Nay, he struck so plainly, I could too well
feel his blows; and withal so doubtfully, that I could scarce
understand them.

_Adr._ But say, I prithee, is he coming home?                       55
It seems he hath great care to please his wife.

_Dro. E._ Why, mistress, sure my master is horn-mad.

_Adr._ Horn-mad, thou villain!

_Dro. E._                      I mean not cuckold-mad;
But, sure, he is stark mad.
When I desired him to come home to dinner,                          60
He ask'd me for a thousand marks in gold:
''Tis dinner-time,' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he:
'Your meat doth burn,' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he:
'Will you come home?' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he,
'Where is the thousand marks I gave thee, villain?'                 65
'The pig,' quoth I, 'is burn'd;' 'My gold!' quoth he:
'My mistress, sir,' quoth I; 'Hang up thy mistress!
I know not thy mistress; out on thy mistress!'

_Luc._ Quoth who?

_Dro. E._ Quoth my master:                                          70
'I know,' quoth he, 'no house, no wife, no mistress.'
So that my errand, due unto my tongue,
I thank him, I bare home upon my shoulders;
For, in conclusion, he did beat me there.

_Adr._ Go back again, thou slave, and fetch him home.               75

_Dro. E._ Go back again, and be new beaten home?
For God's sake, send some other messenger.

_Adr._ Back, slave, or I will break thy pate across.

_Dro. E._ And he will bless that cross with other beating:
Between you I shall have a holy head.                               80

_Adr._ Hence, prating peasant! fetch thy master home.

_Dro. E._ Am I so round with you as you with me,
That like a football you do spurn me thus?
You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither:
If I last in this service, you must case me in leather.
    [_Exit._                                               85

_Luc._ Fie, how impatience lowereth in your face!

_Adr._ His company must do his minions grace,
Whilst I at home starve for a merry look.
Hath homely age the alluring beauty took
From my poor cheek? then he hath wasted it:                         90
Are my discourses dull? barren my wit?
If voluble and sharp discourse be marr'd,
Unkindness blunts it more than marble hard:
Do their gay vestments his affections bait?
That's not my fault; he's master of my state:                       95
What ruins are in me that can be found,
By him not ruin'd? then is he the ground
Of my defeatures. My decayed fair
A sunny look of his would soon repair:
But, too unruly deer, he breaks the pale,                          100
And feeds from home; poor I am but his stale.

_Luc._ Self-harming jealousy! fie, beat it hence!

_Adr._ Unfeeling fools can with such wrongs dispense.
I know his eye doth homage otherwhere;
Or else what lets it but he would be here?                         105
Sister, you know he promised me a chain;
Would that alone, alone he would detain,
So he would keep fair quarter with his bed!
I see the jewel best enamelled
Will lose his beauty; yet the gold bides still,                    110
That others touch, and often touching will
Wear gold: and no man that hath a name,
By falsehood and corruption doth it shame.
Since that my beauty cannot please his eye,
I'll weep what's left away, and weeping die.                       115

_Luc._ How many fond fools serve mad jealousy!

    [_Exeunt._



  NOTES: II, 1.

  The house ... Ephesus.] Pope. The same (i.e. A publick place).
    Capell, and passim.
  11: _o' door_] Capell. _adore_ F1 F2 F3. _adoor_ F4.
  12: _ill_] F2 F3 F4. _thus_ F1.
  15: _lash'd_] _leashed_ "a learned lady" conj. ap. Steevens.
    _lach'd_ or _lac'd_ Becket conj.
  17: _bound, ... sky:_] _bound: ... sky,_ Anon. conj.
  19: _subjects_] _subject_ Capell.
  20, 21: _Men ... masters ... Lords_] Hanmer. _Man ... master
    ... Lord_ Ff.
  21: _wild watery_] _wilde watry_ F1. _wide watry_ F2 F3 F4.
  22, 23: _souls ... fowls_] F1. _soul ... fowl_ F2 F3 F4.
  30: _husband start_] _husband's heart's_ Jackson conj.
  _other where_] _other hare_ Johnson conj. See note (III).
  31: _home_] om. Boswell (ed. 1821).
  39: _wouldst_] Rowe. _would_ Ff.
  40: _see_] _be_ Hanmer.
  41: _fool-begg'd_] _fool-egg'd_ Jackson conj. _fool-bagg'd_
    Staunton conj. _fool-badged_ Id. conj.
  44: SCENE II. Pope.
  _now_] _yet_ Capell.
  45: _Nay_] _At hand? Nay_ Capell.
  _and_] om. Capell.
  45, 46: _two ... two_] _too ... two_ F1.
  50-53: _doubtfully_] _doubly_ Collier MS.
  53: _withal_] _therewithal_ Capell.
  _that_] om. Capell, who prints lines 50-54 as four verses ending
    _feel ... I ... therewithal ... them._
  59: _he is_] _he's_ Pope. om. Hanmer.
  61: _a thousand_] F4. _a hundred_ F1 _a 1000_ F2 F3.
  64: _home_] Hanmer. om. Ff.
  68: _I know not thy mistress_] _Thy mistress I know not_ Hanmer.
    _I know not of thy mistress_ Capell. _I know thy mistress not_
    Seymour conj.
  _out on thy mistress_] F1 F4. _out on my mistress_ F2 F3.
    _'out on thy mistress,' Quoth he_ Capell. _I know no mistress;
    out upon thy mistress_ Steevens conj.
  70: _Quoth_] _Why, quoth_ Hanmer.
  71-74: Printed as prose in Ff. Corrected by Pope.
  73: _bare_] _bear_ Steevens.
  _my_] _thy_ F2.
  74: _there_] _thence_ Capell conj.
  85: _I last_] _I'm to last_ Anon. conj.
  [Exit.] F2.
  87: SCENE III. Pope.
  93: _blunts_] F1. _blots_ F2 F3 F4.
  107: _alone, alone_] F2 F3 F4. _alone, a love_ F1.
    _alone, alas!_ Hanmer. _alone, O love,_ Capell conj.
    _alone a lone_ Nicholson conj.
  110: _yet the_] Ff. _and the_ Theobald. _and tho'_ Hanmer.
    _yet though_ Collier.
  111: _That others touch_] _The tester's touch_ Anon. (Fras. Mag.)
    conj. _The triers' touch_ Singer.
  _and_] Ff. _yet_ Theobald. _an_ Collier. _though_ Heath conj.
  111, 112: _will Wear_] Theobald (Warburton). _will, Where_] F1.
  112, 113: F2 F3 F4 omit these two lines. See note (IV).
  112: _and no man_] F1. _and so no man_ Theobald.
    _and e'en so man_ Capell. _and so a man_ Heath conj.
  113: _By_] F1. _But_ Theobald.
  115: _what's left away_] _(what's left away)_ F1.
    _(what's left) away_ F2 F3 F4.



Act I, scene ii; Act II, scene i
Egeon's son, Antipholus of Syracuse, is also in Ephesus, although neither he nor his father is aware of the other's presence. A friendly Merchant warns Antipholus about the law concerning Syracusans and advises him to pretend to be from another city in order to avoid arrest. Antipholus thanks him and sends his servant, Dromio of Syracuse, to the Centaur Inn with their money  and luggage. Left alone, he muses on his unhappiness, caused by his fruitless quest for his brother and mother. Unknown to anyone, however, his missing brother is actually a prosperous citizen of Ephesus, served by his own Dromio of Ephesus. Antipholus of Ephesus is married to a woman named Adriana, and he is a great favorite of Duke Solinus. As Antipholus of Syracuse muses, Dromio of Ephesus appears and demands that his "master" come home to dinner. He has mistaken this Antipholus for Antipholus of Ephesus, and Antipholus S., in turn, mistakes this Dromio for his own servant. Their misunderstanding leads to an argument--Dromio E. insists that Antipholus S. return to their house because his wife is impatient with him, while Antipholus S. demands to know what has become of their money and belongings. Eventually, the master slaps the slave, and Dromio E. flees, leaving his master to remark that Ephesus is reportedly full of sorcerers and that one must have bewitched his man. Fearing for the safety of his possessions, he hurries off in the direction of the Centaur Inn. The scene now shifts to a conversation between Adriana, the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, and her sister Luciana. Adriana is anxiously awaiting the return of her husband--and his slave, who she sent out after him. Luciana rebukes her for being impatient, saying that a dutiful wife should be a docile servant to her husband. Adriana retorts that Luciana speaks without experience--that once she is married, she will have a different point of view. As they debate, Dromio of Ephesus returns and reports the bizarre behavior of his master , saying that Antipholus is mad and will talk of nothing but his gold. Furious, Adriana threatens to beat him unless he brings her husband back, and Dromio reluctantly goes out again. Once he is gone, Adriana tells her sister that Antipholus must have taken a lover--that is the only explanation for his absence and peculiar behavior.
Commentary Antipholus of Syracuse is a stronger, more interesting character than his brother, if only because Shakespeare allows him emotions larger than the confusion and anger that Antipholus of Ephesus expresses. Here, we see Antipholus S. experiencing a kind of angst or spiritual incompleteness brought on by the absence of his twin and mother--"I to the world am like a drop of water," he says, "that in the ocean seeks another drop, / Who falling there to find his fellow forth, / Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself. / So I, to find a mother and a brother, / In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself". His sense of alienation and loss of self will only increase as the play continues, and he begins to doubt his own identity amid the confusion. The violence between master and slave when Antipholus strikes his brother's Dromio, believing him to be his own slave, establishes a pattern for the play, as both Dromios  complain of the heavy hands of the master--and mistress, since Adriana also is not averse to slapping Dromio around. These beatings are usually played for laughs, however, and it is significant that in a play filled with ropes, drawn swords, and threats no one really gets hurt. Meanwhile, the description that Antipholus gives of Ephesus as "a town full of cozenage: / As nimble jugglers that deceive the eye, / Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind, / soul-killing witches that deform the body / ... And many such-like liberties of sin", would have resonated with an Elizabethan audience well-versed in the Bible; in the New Testament, the apostle Paul travels to Ephesus and finds the city full of witchcraft. This theme of enchantment, which, far from being benign, is directly associated with "sin," will be returned to throughout the play, since magic seems to be the only sensible explanation for the peculiar events. The argument between Adriana and Luciana establishes their chief character traits: Adriana is clearly a jealous, shrewish wife in the tradition of Shakespeare's own The Taming of the Shrew, but despite her faults, she is a more sympathetic character than the docile, preachy Luciana, whose advice to women is to practice patience and subservience. While Luciana offers the conventional wisdom of Shakespeare's day, the playwright undermines these notions; the problems between husband and wife in The Comedy of Errors stem not from Adriana's jealousy or lack of obedience but from the fact that for a time, at least, she seems to have two husbands. Indeed, her behavior seems appropriate to the mixed- up situation; obedience is all very well, but to which man must she be obedient?