"The Comedie of Errors" was first printed in the folio of 1623, where it occupies sixteen pages, viz. from p. 85 to p. 100 inclusive, in the division of "Comedies." It was reprinted in the three subsequent impressions of the same volume. INTRODUCTION. We have distinct evidence of the existence of an old play called "The Historie of Error," acted at Hampton Court on newyear's night, 1576-7. The same play, in all probability, was repeated at Windsor on twelfth-night, 1582-3, though, in the accounts of the Master of the Revels, it is called "The Historie of Ferrar." Boswell (Mal. Shakesp. iii. 406) not very happily conjectured, that this "Historie of Ferrar" was some piece by George Ferrers, as if it had been named after its author, who had been dead several years: the fact, no doubt, is, that the clerk, who prepared the account, merely wrote the title by his ear, and put down "of Ferrar" instead of "of Error." Thus we see that, shortly before Shakespeare is supposed to have come to London, a play was in course of performance upon which his own “ Comedy of Errors" might have been founded. "The Historie of Error" was, probably, an early adaptation of the Menæchmi of Plautus, of which a free translation was published in 1595, under the following title: "A pleasant and fine Conceited Comedie, taken out of the most excellent wittie Poet Plautus: Chosen purposely from out the rest, as least barmefull, and yet most delightfull. Written in English by W. W.-London Printed by Tho. Creede, and are to be sold by William Barley, at his shop in Gratious streete. 1595." 4to. The title-page, therefore, does not (as we might be led to suppose from Steevens's reprint in the "Six Old Plays ") mention the Menæchmi by name, but we learn it from the argument of the piece itself, which begins thus:: "Two twin-borne sonnes a Sicill marchant had, Menæchmus one, and Socicles the other.”—Sign. A 3 b. Ritson was of opinion, "that Shakespeare was not under the slightest obligation" to the translation of the Menæchmi, by W. W., supposed, by Ant. Wood (Ath. Oxon. by Bliss, i. 766), to be W. Warner; and most likely Ritson was right, not from want of resemblance, but because "The Comedy of Errors" was, in all probability, anterior in point of date, and because Shakespeare may have availed himself of the old drama which, as already noticed, was performed at court in 1576-7, and in 1582-3. That court-drama, we may infer, had its origin in Plautus; and it was, perhaps, the popularity of Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors" which induced Creede to print W. W.'s version of the Menachmi in 1595. There are various points of likeness between this version and Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors; but those points we may suppose to have been derived intermediately, through the courtdrama, and not directly from Plautus'. Sir W. Blackstone entertained the belief, from the "long hobbling verses" in "The Comedy of Errors," that it was "among Shakespeare's more early productions:" this is plausible; but we imagine, from their general dissimilarity to the style of our great dramatist, that these "long hobbling verses " formed a portion of the old court-drama, of which Shakespeare made as much use as answered his purpose: they are quite in the style of plays anterior to the time of Shakespeare, and it is easy; we think, to distinguish such portions of the comedy as he must have written. The earliest notice we have of "The Comedy of Errors," is by Meres, in his Palladis Tamia, 1598, where he gives it to Shakespeare under the name of "Errors"." How much before that time it had been written and produced on the stage, we can only speculate. Malone refers to a part of the dialogue in Act iii. sc. 2, where Dromio of Syracuse is conversing with his master about the "kitchen wench" who insisted upon making love to him, and who was so fat and round-"spherical like a globe"-that Dromio "could find out countries in her:" "Ant. S. Where France? Dro. 8. In her forehead; arm'd and reverted, making war against her heir.” It is supposed that an equivoque was intended on the word "heir" (which is printed in the folio of 1623 "heire," at that period an unusual way of spelling "hair"), and that Shakespeare alluded to the civil war in France, which began in the middle of 1589, and did not terminate until the close of 1593. This notion seems well-founded, for otherwise there would be no joke in the reply; and it accords pretty exactly with the time when we may believe "The Comedy of Errors" to have been written. But here we have a range of four years and a half, and we can arrive at no nearer approximation to a precise date. As a mere conjecture it may be stated, that Shakespeare would not have inserted the allusion to the hostility between France and her "heir," after the war 1 In Act I. and Act II. of "The Comedy of Errors," in the folio of 1623, Antipholus of Syracuse is twice called Erotes and Errotis, which is conjectured to be a corruption of erraticus. Antipholus of Ephesus, in the same way, is once called Sereptus (misprinted, perhaps, for surreptus); but in the last three acts they are distinguished as "Antipholus of Syracusia," and "Antipholus of Ephesus." The épithets of erraticus and surreptus were not obtained by Shakespeare from W. W., but probably from the old court-drama. 2 The list supplied by Meres is of twelve plays; and, if any thing is to be gathered from the circumstance, he places "Errors" second, "Gentlemen of Verona" alone coming before it. |