Chapter 7

SOLUTIONS MAKE ALL THE STRANGERS FEEL AT HOME

The climax of bewilderment being reached in the evidence that the same man is both out of the Priory and in it, solutions follow. Trace the steps by which this is accomplished.

Why is the attack upon Antipholus the Stranger assigned to the Merchant who is the Goldsmith's creditor instead of to the Goldsmith? Is it by chance or is there some reason for it? Why did not Antipholus explain that he had the chain through no option of his own? By means of the Merchant drawing his sword and detaining him, the scene with Adriana at the close of the preceding Act when his flight prevented her from having him bound as a mad man is carried on again, and refuge in the Priory forced upon him.

Why does the Abbess blame Adriana first because she did not find fault with her husband and then because she did? Is her sudden harsh turn against her explicable not as personal inconsistency or womanly prejudice, but as due to a gleam of insight? What clew to the case does Adriana's meekness afford? Or else of the relationship of the Abbess to the twins? Why does she so peremptorily keep the man from his wife? Is not this conduct devised to mystify the audience rather than the characters?

Notice that the Abbess is more of a surprise in her relation to the plot than the condemned Egean is. The Abbess episode balances at the close of the Play the Egean episode at the opening of the story. Trace the links of connection with the main action of each and their relation to each other, showing how they bind into an absolute unity a peculiarly symmetrical plot. Why do the two Dromios end the Play instead of the main characters?

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Is this Play the better or worse farce for the serious domestic situation and the pathos of the long separation of the shipwrecked family?

VI

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

In what sense can there be said to be a development of character in "The Comedie of Errors?" If no progress can be traced in the standpoint of any one character of the Play, save possibly in that of Adriana, is there yet not to be seen a gradual bringing forward of the traits inwardly differentiating the two pairs of twins, and stamping the personality of Adriana and Luciana and even in a slighter degree of the Goldsmith, the Creditor Merchant, Egean, and the Abbess?

Show what you deem this to be in each character, and by what means the result in each is effected.

Is Antipholus the Stranger of a gentler and more pious spirit than Antipholus the Native? What signs of this impression can you cite? Was Antipholus the Native popular in Ephesus? What calling had he followed? Why do we learn more of Antipholus the Stranger at once than of his brother? In what respects does this suit the plot and the circumstances?

Which Dromio do you think the wittier? Is one more a house servant and less of a personal attendant and professional fool than the other? Why, do you think, is Antipholus the Stranger made to beat his man so often? Is his quick temper, or a sort of horse-play fun at the bottom of it? Or is the ancient custom as to body servants exemplified?

Which Antipholus has been the more independently reared and is this signified in their characters? It has been supposed that Antipholus the Native married at the Duke's bidding for money and not for love. What reason does the Play give for this supposition? Is Adriana's jealousy a reason, or is he fonder of her than she realizes? Which of the Sisters do you like best, and why?

Why would Antipholus the Native be better mated with one than the other? In what respects of character would Luciana be apt to attract Antipholus the Stranger more than Adriana would? Are there signs to show that Adriana and her husband are the more stalwart pair? Show how admirably the riper characters of the father and mother set off the qualities and relationships of the younger group.

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

The resemblances of the twins externally are counter-balanced by diversities that are internal, so that the possibilities of confusion may be said to be only skin deep. Does this add to the improbableness of the plot sufficiently to make it a questionable quality of the plot that the characters are so much differentiated, or does it serve rather to enrich the Play and make it far more interesting? Are there signs of character in Adriana and her husband going to show that they are destined to be happier in their relation to each other than ever before?

VII

SHAKESPEARE'S DEPARTURES FROM PLAUTUS

The omissions and changes Shakespeare made from Plautus's plot are almost as important in lending his Play a new effect as the additions and entirely original inventions.

Notice the entire omission of the borrowed cloak taken from his wife, Mulier, by Menaechmus and given to the Courtisan, Erotium; also, of the character of the parasite, Peniculus, by means of whom as a spiteful informer the wife is told of her husband's relations with Erotium and the dinner he proposes to take with her. Instead of Mulier's father, Senex, Shakespeare creates the noble Egean, the father of the Twins. Introducing his plot with the incident of his arrest, he closes it with the still more notable character of the mother whom he gives an important part to play in the happy solution of the difficulties and the re-union. The part of the Duke and the trade relations of the two cities, the city in Sicily as in Plautus, the other Ephesus, instead of Epidamnum, as in Plautus, are ingenious changes of an external sort. What is effected by them? The different treatment of the dinner incident which causes the husband to mean to dine at home, until he finds he cannot, when with others he invites the courtisan to dine with them at an Inn, lends a different color to the story. What do you think it effects as to character, amusingness, and unity with the plot of mistaken identity? The courtisan's open visit to the wife and direct effect upon the plot is in strong contrast to the intrigue of which the wife is informed by a third person. Bring this out, and show what the influence is.

Compare the argument of Plautus (For this see "First Folio Edition" of "Comedie of Errors," p. 76) with the opening scene wherein Shakespeare causes Egean to tell the story out of which the Play grows. In what respects is this an improvement? (See Extract from Ten Brink, p. 183).

What is accomplished by the addition of the twin servants?--the two Dromios? (for special assistance in a comparative appreciation of Shakespeare's farce and that of Plautus see Introduction also Sources in the "First Folio Edition" of this Play).

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Is the complexity of Shakespeare's plot over that of Plautus a disadvantage? If not, how does this fact agree with the common saying that simplicity in Art is the highest Art?

Are the farcical interest and the character interest carried on too far not to be seen to be inconsistent interests? Or is the secret of the Art of the Play the reconciliation and harmony of the farcical and the serious?

THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA

The unusual in this Comedy is due to its reflection of the ideals and manners of Chivalry in Love and Friendship as loyally professed by Valentine and Silvia and outraged by Protheus.

The plot is extremely simple and is carried on by means of causing its main characters successively to dominate in their influence upon the action.