The Comedy of Errors

Roles

• Antipholus of Syracuse
• Dromio of Syracuse

About this piece

Antipholus of Syracuse beats up his servant

Summary

The story is set in Ephesus. Aegeon, a merchant from Syracuse is facing execution for having broken a rule between the two rival cities, that is if anybody from a rival city is caught there then they have to pay a ransom to avoid being executed. He is led to his execution by Solinus, the Duke of Ephesus. Aegeon tells him that he is traveling in Ephesus because he is actually looking for his long lost son, one of his two twin brothers that were separated 25 yeas before because of a storm. His slave's twin sons were also separated and one of them ended up with his wife and other twin son. Antipholus of Syracuse, Aegeon's son, is also in Ephesus, but neither of them knows of each other's presence. Antipholus is traveling with his slave Dromio of Syracuse. Antipholus's twin brother, Antipholus of Ephesus, is a prominent citizen of the city and has as a slave Dromio's twin brother. S. Antipholus sends S. Dromio to deposit some money at an inn but then encounters E. Dromio who mistakens him for his master. S. Antipholus asks about his money and E. Dromio doesn't understand what he is talking about. S. Antipholus beats him. Later Antipholus meets his real servant, S. Dromio, who obviously doesn't know what happened before with E. Dromio. Thinking that his servant is making fun of him, he beats him too while his servant tries to calm him down through a long joke about baldness.

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