The Comedy of Errors

Every why hath a wherefore.

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.

Act I

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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

External links

• The Comedy of Errors quotes analyzed; study guide with themes, character analyses, literary devices, teaching resources