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If... Let... In secret... Ere... To the under... Capell.

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Perhaps the best arrangement, because requiring the least change from the printing of the Folio, would be to put the words 'And Claudio' in a line by themselves. Many examples of such a broken line in the middle of a speech may be found (e.g. v. 1. 448), and it would add to the emphasis with which the Duke commends Claudio to the Provost's care. The long line v. 1. 465 might be similarly reduced by reading

Is Barnardine.'

'His name

NOTE XXI.

IV. 5. 1. Johnson suggests that Act v. should begin here. He adds: "This play has two Friars, either of whom might singly have served. I should therefore imagine that 'Friar Thomas,' in the first Act, might be changed without any harm to 'Friar Peter:' for why should the Duke unnecessarily trust two in an affair which required only one? The name of Friar Thomas is never mentioned in the dialogue, and therefore seems arbitrarily placed at the head of the scene."

NOTE XXII.

v. 1. 131. Mr Sidney Walker, in his Shakespeare's Versification, pp. 80 sqq., suggests that in this and other passages we should read 'this',' because 'This is is not unfrequently, like That is, &c., contracted into a monosyllable.' For the reason assigned in Note (III) to The Tempest, I. 2. 173, we have preferred the more familiar spelling this's.

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS.

DRAMATIS PERSONE1.

SOLINUS, duke of Ephesus.

ÆGEON, a merchant of Syracuse.

ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus,) twin brothers, and sons to ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse, Ægeon and Æmilia.

DROMIO of Ephesus,) twin brothers, and attendants on

DROMIO of Syracuse,

BALTHAZAR, a merchant.

ANGELO, a goldsmith.

the two Antipholuses.

First Merchant, friend to Antipholus of Syracuse.

Second Merchant, to whom Angelo is a debtor*.

PINCH, a schoolmaster.

ÆMILIA, wife to Ægeon, an abbess at Ephesus.

ADRIANA, wife to Antipholus of Ephesus.

LUCIANA, her sister.

Luce, servant to Adriana.

A Courtezan.

Gaoler, Officers, and other Attendants.

SCENE-Ephesus.

1 DRAMATIS PERSONÆ first given by

Rowe.

2 SOLINUS] See note (I).

3 ANTIPHOLUS] See note (1). 4 Added by Dyce.

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS.

ACT I.

SCENE I. A hall in the DUKE's palace.

Enter DUKE, ÆGEON, Gaoler, Officers, and other Attendants.

Æge. 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 guilders to redeem their lives,
Have seal'd his rigorous statutes with their bloods,
Excludes all pity from our threatening looks.
For, since the mortal and intestine jars
'Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us,
It hath in solemn synods been decreed,

5

10

A hall...palace.] Malone. The Duke's palace. Theobald. A publick Place. Capell.

Duke] the Duke of Ephesus. Ff. Ægeon,] Rowe. with the Merchant of Siracusa, Ff.

Officers,] Capell. Officer, Staunton. om. Ff.

1 Solinus] F1. Salinus F2F3F4

8 guilders] Singer (ed. 2). gilders Ff.

10 looks] books Anon. conj.

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