The Comedy of Errors (Cambridge School Shakespeare Series) Book

This play is so light it practically floats, a marvelous, silly absurdity of mistaken identity that will put a smile on your face even the cranky ...may laugh. The plot was old when Shakespeare wrote it back in the 1590's. Still not just a set of twins in this comedy but two, the writer wanted to double the amusement in the convoluted story. Antipholus born in the Greek settled city of Syracuse in Sicily, in ancient times no specific year stated but somewhere between the start of the Christian era and the fifteenth century. He the Greek baby had a brother born on the same day and nearby about the same hour another set of twins arrive to a poor family. The father of Antipholus , Egeon, a wealthy merchant has a bright idea that isn't , buying the poor twins as companions and servants ( slaves) to his boys, here it gets quite confusing...the four children have only two names. Antipholus for the rich kids , Dromio for the not. Never contented in Syracuse the merchant along with his wife Emilia and all the twins travel by ship for an opportunity to make more money in a foreign city. So to scramble and eventually spice the narrative, you'll see why later, the vessel founders, in a storm , off the coast of what will be Albania, someday, the family becomes divided, all are rescued but by different boats and for many years the relatives don't know if the others are alive or dead...The father who has one of the twins and his son's servant, continues to search for his wife , the other child and companion, unsuccessful....Until Egeon lands in the Greek city in Asia Minor of Ephesus ( in modern day Turkey) bad mistake...the two towns of Syracuse and Ephesus are big rivals and hate the other. Death is the prescribed punishment for arrivals from the Sicilian town . Poor man alone, imprisoned, his son had gone before him in their never ending quest, not enough money to pay the fine so he must perish. Yet unknown to the father his second son is a prosperous merchant here, soon Antipholus of Syracuse joins the circus, if I may call it that as people confuse the twins , servants, and the boys from Syracuse think this is a friendly but crazy metropolis, full of witches, strange people greet them by their names , treated like close friends, given money, jewelry and women they have never seen before, call them husbands...And the men from Ephesus think something is amiss, errands are not performed properly, friends called them liars and thieves...wives say the husbands are insane. Turmoil follows turmoil, until the final awakening. A fun trifle and the incomparable writer begins to show his enormous talent and the reader... gets a brief break from the world's unrest.