Hear the story of William Shakespeare's “The Comedy of Errors”
The story of William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, as told by the cast and crew of a Folger Shakespeare Library production.
Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library; CC-BY-SA 4.0 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.At the feast of the Phaeacians, Odysseus relates the story of his blinding of Polyphemus, the Cyclops.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Odysseus convinces Penelope that he is her husband by knowing a particular and secret detail of the construction of their bed.
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Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library; CC-BY-SA 4.0 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Learn about the First Folio edition (1623) of William Shakespeare's plays and its allure for collectors and scholars. In addition, take a look at the Hinman collator, a machine originally developed to help scholars detect minute differences between copies of the First Folio.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.This film recounts the life of Shakespeare from his early boyhood through his productive years as a playwright and actor in London. It is a 1955 production of Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation.
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Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library; CC-BY-SA 4.0 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Learn how Abraham Lincoln's studying of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible helped him to compose perhaps the best-remembered address in American history.
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Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library; CC-BY-SA 4.0 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Learn about the significance of books for Prospero, the learned magician in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest, and examine actual books that character might treasure, as selected from the collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.
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Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library; CC-BY-SA 4.0 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)A tutorial from the staff of the Folger Shakespeare Library on the safe handling of rare books, manuscripts, and prints.
Transcript
SPEAKER 1: Well, it's all a bit chaotic.
SPEAKER 2: Before the play begins, Egeon marries Emilia and they have identical twins.
SPEAKER 3: Antipholus, named them both Antipholus. And then they bought two slave twins, the Dromios.
SPEAKER 4: It's a comedy.
SPEAKER 5: There is a father who has arrived in this land.
SPEAKER 6: But he's not allowed to be in that land.
SPEAKER 5: And he has to plead his case in front of a duke.
SPEAKER 7: And he has puppets.
SPEAKER 4: And he tells this great story of a shipwreck, which basically split his family.
SPEAKER 6: The duke feels really bad for him and he says, look you, I'm going to give you a day. Go find the money that you need to stay alive.
SPEAKER 8: Meanwhile--
SPEAKER 9: One brother goes in search of the other brother.
SPEAKER 1: And everybody ends up in the same town.
SPEAKER 8: So there's a lot of mistaken identity.
SPEAKER 2: The world feels very, very odd and weird and impossible.
SPEAKER 10: And the wrong Antipholus goes and has dinner with his wife.
SPEAKER 7: And the wife doesn't know that her husband is actually the twin. And--
SPEAKER 6: He woos the sister, not the wife because it's not really his wife.
SPEAKER 10: And then the real Antipholus comes home and he can't get in for dinner.
SPEAKER 5: Next thing that happens is--
SPEAKER 8: There's a chain. There's a chain. There's a necklace that he's bought, and it goes to the wrong guy.
SPEAKER 10: And then the other Antipholus gets arrested for not paying for the chain, which he never really received, and then--
SPEAKER 3: It goes on and on like that for a long time.
SPEAKER 8: And at the end--
SPEAKER 10: The Antipholus and the Dromios, they come face to face. And they realize that they have found their twin brothers.
SPEAKER 8: And everybody meets at the end. And they're all happy. It all gets sorted out, and it's happy.
SPEAKER 3: It's cute.
SPEAKER 1: And it's funny.
SPEAKER 2: It better be funny.
SPEAKER 2: Before the play begins, Egeon marries Emilia and they have identical twins.
SPEAKER 3: Antipholus, named them both Antipholus. And then they bought two slave twins, the Dromios.
SPEAKER 4: It's a comedy.
SPEAKER 5: There is a father who has arrived in this land.
SPEAKER 6: But he's not allowed to be in that land.
SPEAKER 5: And he has to plead his case in front of a duke.
SPEAKER 7: And he has puppets.
SPEAKER 4: And he tells this great story of a shipwreck, which basically split his family.
SPEAKER 6: The duke feels really bad for him and he says, look you, I'm going to give you a day. Go find the money that you need to stay alive.
SPEAKER 8: Meanwhile--
SPEAKER 9: One brother goes in search of the other brother.
SPEAKER 1: And everybody ends up in the same town.
SPEAKER 8: So there's a lot of mistaken identity.
SPEAKER 2: The world feels very, very odd and weird and impossible.
SPEAKER 10: And the wrong Antipholus goes and has dinner with his wife.
SPEAKER 7: And the wife doesn't know that her husband is actually the twin. And--
SPEAKER 6: He woos the sister, not the wife because it's not really his wife.
SPEAKER 10: And then the real Antipholus comes home and he can't get in for dinner.
SPEAKER 5: Next thing that happens is--
SPEAKER 8: There's a chain. There's a chain. There's a necklace that he's bought, and it goes to the wrong guy.
SPEAKER 10: And then the other Antipholus gets arrested for not paying for the chain, which he never really received, and then--
SPEAKER 3: It goes on and on like that for a long time.
SPEAKER 8: And at the end--
SPEAKER 10: The Antipholus and the Dromios, they come face to face. And they realize that they have found their twin brothers.
SPEAKER 8: And everybody meets at the end. And they're all happy. It all gets sorted out, and it's happy.
SPEAKER 3: It's cute.
SPEAKER 1: And it's funny.
SPEAKER 2: It better be funny.