The date of 1593, placing this among the author's earlier works, corresponds with various other indications of style and versification, and cast of thought, not decisive in themselves. Thus the alternate rhymes in which the courtship of the Syracusian Antipholus is clothed, is in the taste of Shakespeare's earlier poems, and corresponds also with the versification of some of the love-scenes in the first edition of ROMEO AND JULIET, as well as with passages in LOVE'S LABOUR LOST. The long doggerel lines, in which so much of the more farcical part is written, is a vestige of the older versification still used on the stage at the commencement of Shakespeare's dramatic career. This, in various forms of the longer rhythm, had come down through English literature even from Saxon poetry, and had been employed for the gravest subjects, as not unworthy of epic, narrative, or devotional poetry. It had gradually given way, for such purposes, to more cultivated metres, such as are now in use; but was still used in dramatic composition by Shakespeare's immediate predecessors, for all purposes of dialogue, whether grave or gay. Shakespeare (so far as I can trace the subject) seems to have been the first who perceived the peculiar adaptation of these long hobbling measures for ludicrous effect, and who used them for nothing else. PERIOD OF THE ACTION. # "In Douce's essay 'On the Anachronisms and some other Incongruities of Shakespeare,' the offences of our Poet in the COMEDY OF ERRORS are thus summed up: In the ancient city of Ephesus we have ducats, marks, and guilders, and the Abbess of a Nunnery. Mention is also made of several modern European kingdoms, and of America; of Henry the Fourth of France, of Turkish tapestry, a rapier, and a striking-clock; of Lapland sorcerers, Satan, and even of Adam and Noah. In one place Antipholus calls himself a Christian. As we are unacquainted with the immediate source whence this play was derived, it is impossible to ascertain whether Shakespeare is responsible for these anachronisms.' "Douce, seeing that the COMEDY OF ERRORS was suggested by the Menæchmi of Plautus, considers, no doubt, that Shakespeare intended to place his action at the same period as the Roman play. It is manifest to us that he intended precisely the contrary. The Menæchmi contains invocations in great number to the ancient divinities;— Jupiter and Apollo are here familiar words. From the first line of the COMEDY OF ERRORS to the last we have not the slightest allusion to the classical mythology. Was there not a time, then, even in the ancient city of Ephesus, when there might be an abbess,-men might call themselves Christians,-and Satan, Adam, and Noah might be names of common use? We do not mean to affirm that Shakespeare intended to select the Ephesus of Christianity -the great city of churches and councils-for the dwelling-place of Antipholus, any more than we think that Duke Solinus was a real personage-that 'Duke Menaphon, his most renowned uncle,' ever had any existenceor that even his name could be found in any story more trustworthy than that of Greene's 'Arcadia.' The truth is, that in the same way that Ardennes was a sort of terra incognita of chivalry, the poets of Shakespeare's time had no hesitation in placing the fables of the romantic ages in classical localities, leaving the periods and the names perfectly undefined and unappreciable. Who will undertake to fix a period for the action of Sir Philip Sydney's great romance, when the author has conveyed his reader into the fairy or pastoral land, and informed him what manner of life the inhabitants of that region lead? We cannot open a page of Sydney's 'Arcadia' without being struck with what we are accustomed to call anachronisms,-and these from a very severe critic, who, in his 'Defence of Poesy,' denounces with merciless severity all violation of the unities of the drama. "Warton has prettily said, speaking of Spenser, exactness in his poem would have been like a cornice which a painter introduced in the grotto of Calypso.' Those who would define every thing in poetry are the makers of corniced grottoes. As we are not desirous of belonging to this somewhat obsolete fraternity, to which even Warton himself affected to belong when he wrote what is truly an apology for the 'Faery Queen,' we will leave our readers to decide, whether Duke Solinus reigned at Ephesus before the great temple, after having risen with increasing splendour from seven repeated misfortunes, was finally burnt by the Goths in their third naval invasion;' or whether he presided over the decaying city, somewhat nearer to the period when Justinian filled Constantinople with its statues, and raised his church of St. Sophia on its columns;' or, lastly, whether he approached the period of its final desolation, when the 'candlestick was removed out of its place,' and the Christian Ephesus became the Mohammadan Aiasaluck."-KNIGHT. COSTUME. "The costume of this comedy must, we fear, be left conventional. The two masters, as well as the two servants, must of course be presumed to have been attired precisely alike, or the difference of dress would at least have called forth some remark, had it not led to an immediate eclaircissement; and yet that the Syracusian travellers, both master and man, should by mere chance be clothed in garments not only of the same fashion, but of the same colour, as those of their Ephesian brethren, is beyond the bounds of even stage probability. Were the scene laid during the classical era of Greece, as in the Menæchmi, on which our comedy was founded, the absurdity would not be quite so startling, as the simple tunic of one slave might accidentally resemble that of another; and the chlamys and petasus of the upper classes were at least of one general form, and differed but occasionally in colour; but the appearance of an abbess renders it necessary to consider the events as passing at the time when Ephesus had become famed among the Christian cities of Asia Minor, and at least as late as the first establishment of religious communities, (i. e. in the fourth century.) * "We can only recommend to the artist the Byzantine Greek paintings and illuminations, or the costume adopted from them for scriptural designs by the early Italian painters."-MR. PLANCHE, in "Pictorial Shakespeare." SCENE I.-A Hall in the DUKE's Palace. Enter SOLINUS, Duke of Ephesus, EGEON, a Merchant of Syracusa, Jailer, Officers, and other Attendants. Ege. 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 seal'd his rigorous statutes 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 Syracusians and ourselves, To admit no traffic to our adverse towns: Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies; My woes end likewise with the evening sun. Duke. Well, Syracusian; say, in brief, the cause Why thou departedst from thy native home, And for what cause thou cam'st to Ephesus. Ege. A heavier task could not have been impos'd, Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable; = Yet, that the world may witness, that my end And by me too, had not our hap been bad. There had she not been long, but she became And, which was strange, the one so like the other, Of such a burden, male twins, both alike. A league from Epidamnum had we sail'd, Duke. Nay, forward, old man; do not break off so, For we may pity, though not pardon thee. Ege. O, had the gods done so, I had not now Worthily term'd them merciless to us! For, ere the ships could meet by twice five leagues, We were encounter'd by a mighty rock, Which being violently borne upon, Our helpful ship was splitted in the midst; So that in this unjust divorce of us course. Thus have you heard me sever'd from my bliss, To tell sad stories of my own mishaps. Duke. And, for the sake of them thou sorrowest for, Do me the favour to dilate at full What hath befall'n of them, and thee, till now. mark'd To bear the extremity of dire mishap! Jail. I will, my lord. Ege. Hopeless, and helpless, doth Ægeon wend, But to procrastinate his lifeless end. [Exeunt.. SCENE II-A Public Place. Enter ANTIPHOLUS and DROMIO of Syracuse, and a Merchant. 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 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. 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. 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, 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? Mer. I am invited, sir, to certain merchants, Commends me to the thing I cannot get. Enter DROMIO of Ephesus. Here comes the almanack of my true date.- The capon burns, the pig falls from the spit, Ant. S. Stop in your wind, sir. Tell me this, Where have you left the money that I gave you? Dro. E. O! sixpence, that I had o' Wednesday last 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? Dro. E. I pray you, jest, sir, as you sit at dinner. For she will score your fault upon my pate. 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. Dro. E. To me, sir? why you gave no gold to me. foolishness, Some of my mistress' marks upon my shoulders, Dro. E. Your worship's wife, my mistress at the She that doth fast till you come home to dinner, And prays that you will hie you home to dinner. Ant. S. What, wilt thou flout me thus unto my face, Being forbid? There, take you that, sir knave. [Strikes him. 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. [Exit. |