The Comedy of Errors

early play by William Shakespeare

The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's early plays, written between 1592 and 1594. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical. A major part of the humor comes from slapstick, mistaken identity, puns and wordplay. It's about twins.

Every why hath a wherefore.

Act I

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Let’s go hand in hand, not one before another.
  • The pleasing punishment that women bear.
    • Ægeon, scene i


  • I to the world am like a drop of water
    That in the Ocean seeks another drop,
    Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,
    (Unseen, inquisitive) confounds himself.
    • Antipholus of Syracuse, scene ii


Act II

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  • A wretched soul, bruis'd with adversity,
    We bid be quiet, when we hear it cry;
    But, were we burden'd with like weight of pain,
    As much or more we should ourselves complain.
    • Adriana, scene i


  • Every why hath a wherefore.
    • Dromio of Syracuse, scene ii


Act III

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  • Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.
    • Balthazar, scene i


  • Your town is troubled with unruly boys.
    • Dromio of Syracuse, scene i


  • No longer from head to foot than from hip to hip; she is spherical, like a globe; I could find out countries in her.
    • Dromio of Syracuse, scene ii


Act IV

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  • He is deformed, crooked, old and sere,
    Ill-faced, worse bodied, shapeless everywhere;
    Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind,
    Stigmatical in making, worse in mind.
    • Adriana, scene ii


  • Marry, he must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil.
    • Dromio of Syracuse, scene iii


  • I am an Asse indeed; you may prove it by my long ears. I have served him from the hour of my Nativity to this instant, and have nothing at his hands for my service but blows. When I am cold, he heats me with beating; when I am warm, he cools me with beating; I am waked with it when I sleep, raised with it when I sit, driven out of doors with it when I go from home, welcomed home with it when I return, nay, I bear it on my shoulders as a beggar wont her brat; and I think when he hath lamed me, I shall beg with it from door to door.
    • Dromio of Ephesus, scene iv

Act V

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  • Be quiet, people;
    • Æmilia (the Abbess), scene i


  • A hungry lean-fac'd villain,
    A mere anatomy.
    • Antipholus of Ephesus, scene i


  • A needy, hollow-ey'd, sharp-looking wretch,
    A living-dead man.
    • Antipholus of Ephesus, scene i


  • Let’s go hand in hand, not one before another.
    • Dromio of Ephesus, scene i


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