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The Comedy of Errors

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The Comedy of Errors

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Also known as Comedy of Errors

early play by William Shakespeare

Key facts

Written by
William Shakespeare
Date premiered
c. 1592
Original language
Early Modern English
Genre
Shakespearean comedy

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Narrative location
Greece
Image
FirstFolioComedy.jpg
Show 10 more facts
Commons category
The Comedy of Errors
inception
1594-00-00
language of work or name
English language
title
The Comedy of Errors
first line
EGEON, a merchant from Syracuse
copyright status
public domain
form of creative work
play
publication date
1734-00-00
time period
Renaissance
Sources (3)

via Wikidata · CC0

~24 min read

Encyclopedic overview

The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's earliest plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. It has been adapted for opera, stage, screen and musical theatre numerous times worldwide. In the centuries following its premiere, the play's title has entered the popular English lexicon as an idiom for "an event or series of events made ridiculous by the number of errors that were made throughout".

Set in the Greek city of Ephesus, The Comedy of Errors tells the story of two sets of identical twins who were accidentally separated at birth. Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant, Dromio of Syracuse, arrive in Ephesus, which turns out to be the home of their twin brothers, Antipholus of Ephesus and his servant, Dromio of Ephesus. When the Syracusans encounter the friends and families of their twins, a series of wild mishaps based on mistaken identities lead to wrongful beatings, a near-seduction, the arrest of Antipholus of Ephesus, and false accusations of infidelity, theft, madness, and demonic possession.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “The Comedy of Errors” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (4)