The Comedy of Errors
A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare
- Editor: Standish Henning
- Pages: xxvi & 611 pp.
- Published: 2011
- ISBN: 9780873522960 (Hardcover)
“The Comedy of Errors has received magisterial treatment in this New Variorum edition.”
—Notes and Queries
“[A]n essential reference work for all aspects of the play, living up to the highest standards of the New Variorum edition.”
—The Review of English Studies
The Comedy of Errors not only contains the complete text of the play but also presents the expanse of scholarly opinion and interpretation from the earliest commentary to the present. It covers dating, sources, and emendations to stage history and influential interpretations of particular words.
This Variorum volume includes a CD that contains the contents as fully text-searchable PDFs with internal links for easy navigation.
Inaugurated in the 1860s and the standard reference edition of Shakespeare’s work, the New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare continues the tradition of the original Variorum editions of the early nineteenth century. The New Variorum editions are valuable resources for an international audience of scholars, students, directors, actors, and general readers. Overseen by two general editors and an MLA committee, the production of each edition is conducted by a team of scholars and researchers working over a number of years.
Preface (ix)
Plan of the Work (xi)
Map: A Voyage to the Levant (xxvi)
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS: Text, Textual Notes, and Commentary (1)
Appendix
IRREGULAR, DOUBTFUL, AND EMENDED ACCIDENTALS IN F1 (255)
UNADOPTED CONJECTURES (256)
THE TEXT
Authorship (262)
The F1 Version (263)
The Printer’s Copy (273)
THE DATE OF COMPOSITION (280)
External Evidence
Gesta Grayorum (281)
Meres’s Palladis Tamia and Late Dating (282)
‘‘The Gelyous Comodey’’ 282
Lord Chamberlain’s Company, Founded 1594 (283)
Earlier Time for Beginning Performances (283)
Relation to Other Works (284)
Topical Allusions (287)
Internal Evidence
Doggerel (292)
Vocabulary (294)
Metrical Tests (296)
Shakespeare’s Development (297)
Comparative Chronologies (304)
SOURCES AND INFLUENCES (305)
Titus Maccius Plautus (305)
Menaechmi (306)
Amphitruo and the Supposita (335)
Shakespeare’s Use of Plautus
General Indebtedness (341)
Structure, Themes, Characterization (347)
The Bible and the Liturgy (355)
Acts (355)
Ephesians (357)
Shakespeare’s Use of the Bible (360)
The Book of Common Prayer (363)
The Book of Homilies (364)
Gower, ‘‘Apollonius of Tyre’’ (365)
Other Sources and Influences (370)
Shakespeare’s Map (384)
CRITICISM
General Comments and Assessments (387)
Genre
Farce (390)
Comedy (396)
Mixed Tones (402)
Themes and Significance
General Comments (403)
Identity (408)
Family and Marriage (433)
Order and Disorder (443)
Other Themes (445)
Drame à Clef (453)
Technique
Structure
General Comments (458)
Unities (467)
Framing Structure (468)
Five-Act Structure (470)
Audience Involvement (476)
Symbolic Properties (481)
Language and Style (484)
Characters
The Characters in General (487)
Adriana (489)
Æmilia (494)
E. Antipholus (496)
S. Antipholus (499)
Courtesan (500)
The Dromios (501)
Egeon (501)
Luciana (502)
Pinch (507)
Solinus (508)
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS ON THE STAGE
Staging (509)
Performances (519)
The Text on the Stage (541)
Bibliography (557)
Index (585)
