AP English

The Comedy of Errors was one of Shakespeare’s first works. Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, and Henry VI were all written between 1589 and 1594; scholars disagree as to the particular order. The earliest known performance of The Comedy of Errors was recorded at Gray’s Inn, one of London’s law schools, on December 28, 1594.

The play bears a striking resemblance to the Menaechmi, a play by the Roman playwright Plautus. Shakespeare must have read the original play in Latin, since the English version did not appear until 1595. Plautus’s play tells the comic story of a Syracusan merchant with twin sons who takes one of them on a trip abroad. During the trip, his seven-year-old son becomes separated and is taken to be raised by a childless trader. When the news reaches Syracuse, the other brother’s name is changed to that of his now missing brother. The action of the play is set years later when Menaechmus of Syracuse arrives in Epidamnum. He is greeted warmly by everyone and receives numerous gifts, including an evening with his brother’s mistress. The two men finally meet and decide to return to Syracuse.Shakespeare adopted much of the plot but added twin servants for humor, borrowing the idea from another of Plautus’s plays, the Amphitruo.

The word “errors” actually comes from the Latin “to wander”. The play The Comedy of Errors is not just about comic mistakes or errors but also the wandering journey of a lost family trying to become reunited with each other. This pun would have been very obvious to Elizabethan audiences who knew their Latin.