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Two pairs of identical twins separated in a shipwreck as babies, both masters named Antipholus and both servants named Dromio, find themselves by chance in…
Two pairs of identical twins separated in a shipwreck as babies, both masters named Antipholus and both servants named Dromio, find themselves by chance in the same city, Ephesus, on the same day. The Antipholus from Syracuse is greeted as a husband by a wife he has never met, his servant is claimed by a kitchen maid, gold chains and beatings go to the wrong men, and everyone begins to think the town is bewitched, while the twins' old father, Egeon, waits to be executed.
Context and significance
Written in the early 1590s, it is Shakespeare's shortest play and one of his earliest, based on a Roman comedy by Plautus, and it remains one of the funniest farces ever written. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623, and this text keeps that edition's old spelling. Compare Twelfth Night, another comedy of twins.
About the author
William Shakespeare (1564–1616), born in Stratford-upon-Avon, actor, playwright and shareholder of a London company, wrote about thirty-seven plays and 154 sonnets.