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SHAKSPEARE'S

DRAMATIC WORKS.

VOL. IV.

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COMEDY OF ERRORS.

THIS play, of which the first edition was that of the folio 1623, is mentioned by Meres in 1598, and exhibits internal proofs of having been one of Shakspeare's earliest productions. A translation of the Menæchmi of Plautus by W. W. (i. e. according to Ward, William Warner) was published in 1595, and may have afforded the ground work of the present comedy.

VOL. IV.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

SOLINUS, duke of Ephesus.
ÆGEON, a merchant of Syracuse.
ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus,
ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse,

DROMIO of Ephesus,
DROMIO of Syracuse,

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BALTHAZAR, a merchant.

ANGELO, a goldsmith.

Twin brothers, and sons to Egeon and Emilia, but unknown to each other. Twin brothers, and attendants on the two Antipholus's.

A Merchant, friend to Antipholus of Syracuse.
PINCH, a schoolmaster, and a conjurer.

EMILIA, wife to Ægeon, an abbess at Ephesus.
ADRIANA, wife to Antipholus of Ephesus.
LUCIANA, her sister.

LUCE, her servant.

A Courtezan.

Gaoler, Officers, and other Attendants.

Scene, Ephesus.

COMEDY OF ERRORS.

*

ACT I.

SCENE I.-A Hall in the Duke's Palace.

Enter Duke, EGEON, Gaoler, Officers, and other
Attendants.

Egeon. PROCEED, Solinus, to procure my fall,
And, by the doom of death, end woes and all.
Duke. Merchant of Syracusa, 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 gilders to redeem their lives,
Have sealed his rigorous statues 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 Syracusans and ourselves

To admit no triffick to our adverse towns:
Nay more,

If any, born at Ephesus, be seen
At any Syracusan marts and fairs,
Again, If any Syracusan 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 the law thou art condemn'd to die.

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

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