The Comedy of Errors

This second edition of The Comedy of Errors is revised and introduced by Ros King.

William Shakespeare (Author), T. S. Dorsch (Edited by), Ros King (Revised by)

9780521535168, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 February 2004

144 pages, 13 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.1 x 1.2 cm, 0.25 kg

"King's lively introduction and helpful new bibliography constitute a very welcome updating of the Dorsch edition and shed some new light on one of Shakespeare's early comic masterpieces." - The Sixteenth Century Journal Thomas G. Olsen, State University of New York at New Paltz

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. For this second edition of The Comedy of Errors, Ros King has revised T. S. Dorsch's renowned text and commentary and written a completely new introduction to the work. She argues that the play cannot be regarded merely as a farcical romp based on a classical model but that it belongs to the critically misunderstood genre of tragi-comedy. Emphasising the seriousness that underlies the text, she pays special attention to the play's religious imagery and at the same time engages fully with its lightness of touch and its continuing popularity in the theatre. The volume also features accounts of recent and historical performances, and an updated reading list.

List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
Preface to first edition
Abbreviations
Introduction by Ros King: Shakespeare's main source: Plautus's Menaechmi
Shakespeare's first tragicomedy
Shakespeare's schooling and the construction of The Comedy of Errors
Casting the twins
Verse form and metrication
The first known performance: Gray's Inn 1594
Later productions
Note on the text
List of characters
THE PLAY
Appendixes: 1. The performance of 1594
2. Passages from the Bible
Reading list.

Subject Areas: Shakespeare studies & criticism [DSGS], Shakespeare plays [DDS]