This document contains the agenda and materials for an ELIT 17 Class 3 on Shakespeare's play The Comedy of Errors. The class will include a lecture on Shakespeare's language and the play, discussion questions, and student presentations. Some key points that will be covered include rhyme schemes like couplets and slant rhyme used in the play, Shakespeare's coinage of new words, and syntax variations like subject-object-verb word order that Shakespeare employed. Examples of dramatic irony, mistaken identity, and unintentional deception from the play will also be analyzed. The document provides context and resources to facilitate discussion and analysis of The Comedy of Errors in the class.

1. +
ELIT 17 Class 3

2. +
AGENDA
Lecture
Shakespeare’s Language
The Comedy of Errors
Discussion Questions
QHQs
Introduction
Presentations

3. +
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsyLQaewQks&index=1&list=PL1EA226F17885C8B1
Rhyme in
The Comedy of
Errors

4. +
Rhyme in The Comedy of Errors
Couplets: Two lines that rhyme and have the
same meter
Slant rhyme: sounds of the final of words of
the line are similar but not identical
Internal rhyme: rhyme that occurs within a
single line of verse, or between internal
phrases across multiple lines.

5. +
Shakespeare’s Language
.
.
“cheap,” “fashionable,” “go-
between,” “embrace,”
“lustrous,” “vulnerable,”
“auspicious,” and “well-
bred.”

6. +
Words and Phrases
 The English language owes a great debt to
Shakespeare. Endlessly imaginative and not overly
concerned with grammatical convention, his scripts
contain thousands of never-before-seen words—a
diverse collection of loan-words from foreign
languages, compound words from existing English
terms, nouns turned into verbs, and creatively
applied prefixes—many of which have entered into
everyday language
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/wordsinvented.html
http://mentalfloss.com/article/48657/20-words-we-owe-william-shakespeare

7. +
He created 17,000 + new words.
accommodation
aerial
amazement
apostrophe
assassination
auspicious
baseless
bloody
bump
castigate
changeful
clangor
control (noun)
countless
courtship
critic
critical
dexterously
dishearten
dislocate
dwindle
eventful
exposure
fitful
frugal
multitudinous
obscene
palmy
perusal
pious
premeditated
radiance
reliance
road
sanctimonious
seamy
sportive
submerge
suspicious
generous
Gloomy
gnarled
hurry
impartial
inauspicious
indistinguishable
invulnerable
Lapse
laughable
lonely
majestic
misplaced
monumental

8. +
A Comedy of Errors
 High time
Twelfth Night
 An improbable fiction.
 Hob nob
 Laugh oneself into stitches
Phrases
The Tempest
 Strange bedfellows.
 Such stuff as dreams are
made on.
 In a Pickle

9. Othello
 A foregone conclusion.
 Green-eyed monster.
 I will wear my heart upon my
sleeve.
 Neither here nor there.
 Vanish into thin air.
 Pomp and circumstance.
Richard III
 A tower of strength.
 A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!
 Short shrift.
 The winter of our discontent

10. +
.
'tis = it is
ope = open
o'er = over
gi' = give
ne'er = never
Shakespeare’s Contractions
Here are a few of the most common contractions found in
Shakespeare
i' = in
e'er = ever
oft = often
a' = he
e'en = eve

11. +
Sentences: Syntax
The most common simple sentence in modern English follows a familiar
pattern: Subject (S), Verb (V), Object (O).
"John caught the ball."
This is as perfectly an understood sentence in modern English as it was in
Shakespeare's day. However, Shakespeare was much more at liberty to
switch these three basic components—and did, quite frequently.
Shakespeare used a great deal of SOV inversion, which renders the
sentence as this:
"John the ball caught.”
From Shakespeare Resource Center: “Shakespeare's Grammar”

12. +
Sentences: Transitory Device
Shakespeare also throws in many examples of OSV construction:
"The ball John caught.”
Shakespeare seems to use this colloquially in many places as a transitory
device, bridging two sentences, to provide continuity. Shakespeare (and
many other writers) may also have used this as a device to shift end
emphasis to the verb of a clause. Also, another prevalent usage of inversion
was the VS order shift:
"caught John" instead of "John caught”
This order seems to be primarily a stylistic choice
From Shakespeare Resource Center: “Shakespeare's Grammar”

13. +
Sentences: Rhyming
Another reason for Shakespeare's utilization of this order may be more
practical. The romance languages of Italian and French introduced rhymed
verse; Anglo-Saxon poetry was based on rhythm, metrical stresses, and
alliteration within lines rather than rhymed couplets. With the introduction
of rhymed poetic forms into English literature (and, since the Norman
invasion, an injection of French to boot), there was a subsequent shift in
English poetry.
Verbs in English are easy to rhyme because so many English verbs are
monosyllabic.
From Shakespeare Resource Center: “Shakespeare's Grammar”

14. +
Sentences: Blank Verse
Of course, Shakespeare wrote a great deal of work in blank verse
(unrhymed iambic pentameter: lines of five feet, each foot being iambic,
meaning two syllables long—one unstressed followed by a stressed
syllable). Frankly, Elizabethans allowed for a lot more leeway in word
order, and Shakespeare not only realized that, he took advantage of it. By
utilizing inverted word orders, Shakespeare could effectively place the
metrical stress wherever he needed it most—and English is heavily
dependent on vocal inflection, which is not so easily translated into writing,
to suggest emphasis and meaning. In his usage of order inversion,
however, Shakespeare could compensate for this literary shortcoming.
From Shakespeare Resource Center: “Shakespeare's Grammar”

15. + Blank Verse
The Comedy of Errors, Act 1, scene 1

16. +
Simile
This trope compares two things that have some things in common. Examples:
• Blind as a bat
• Pretty like a flower
• Hard as a rock
Metaphor
The metaphor compares two things that have very little in common but do
share a trait or characteristic. It says something is something else to show what
they have in common. Examples:
• He is an ogre.
• You are my sunshine.
• This school is a zoo.
Pun
A pun repeats a word or phrase but means it in a different way. A good example
is from Groucho Marx:
• "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.”
Wordplay

17. Personification
This trope gives human attributes to things that are not human. Examples:
• The flowers nodded their heads.
• The pizza disagreed with me.
• The old car wheezed and complained.
Hyperbole
This trope uses exaggeration to get its point across. Examples:
• He’s been here hundreds of times.
• I’ll die from embarrassment.
• She has tons of money.
Litotes
This trope understates to emphasize a point and is opposite to a hyperbole. Examples:
• That’s not the worst idea.
• She’s not the most attractive person.
• I am not a happy camper.

18. + The wordplay in this section is driven by a rhetorical device called anadiplosis:
words at the end of one line are picked up at the beginning of the next. This is
Dromio of Ephesus speaking to Antipholus of Syracuse
Returned so soon? Rather approached too late.
The capon burns, the pig falls from the spit.
The clock hath strucken twelve upon the bell;
My mistress made it one upon my cheek.
She is so hot because the meat is cold.
The meat is cold because you come not home.
You come not home because you have no stomach.
You have no stomach, having broke your fast.
But we that know what 'tis to fast and pray
Are penitent for your default today.
(1.2.43-52)

19. +
The Play
A Summary?
The Ending?

20. +
The Royal Shakespeare Company
Act 5 Scene 1 Line 137 (5:1:137) to line 164 1:01
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2TmaMFXuvk
Judi Dench summarizes the situation for the duke!

21. +
Big Business: The Reunion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkZ43zj01b0
2:24

22. +
In Groups
Discuss your answers
to the homework
questions and your
QHQs. We will also
discuss types of
humor, the wooing
scene, and comparing
the twins that we
missed last week.

23. +
Questions
 Find examples
of the different
kinds of
comedy we
discussed in
class today.
Explain why
the scenes or
elements are
or aren’t funny.

24. +
Dramatic Irony
 In this case of mistaken identity, each of the characters, including the two sets of twins,
are bewildered throughout their interactions with each other. The dramatic irony of these
scenes are meant to make us laugh as we witness gaps and leaps in logic that, to
someone who sees the overall situation, seem so absurd. The reasons each Dromio is
beaten, how Antipholus E is locked out of his own house, and how Antipholus S tries to
court Luciana instead of his supposed wife, all without even coming close to the truth,
are humorous because it all falls so meticulously out of place and snowballs from there.
We’re not supposed to think about how everything is timed so perfectly as to bolster the
misunderstandings, or to wonder if Antipholus E ever told his family that he has a twin
brother, but to simply have a laugh at the expense of their confusion.

25. +
Questions
 Wooing scenes are
prominent in
Shakespearian plays. Find
the wooing scene between
Antipholus of Syracuse and
Luciana. Explicate the
meaning and explain how
successful it is.

26. +
Sweet mistress—what your name is else I know
not,
Nor by what wonder you do hit of mine—
Less in your knowledge and your grace you show
not
Than our Earth’s wonder, more than Earth divine.
Teach me, dear creature, how to think and speak.
Lay open to my earthy gross conceit,
Smothered in errors, feeble, shallow, weak,
The folded meaning of your words’ deceit.
Against my soul’s pure truth why labor you
To make it wander in an unknown field?
Are you a god? Would you create me new?
Transform me, then, and to your power I’ll yield.
But if that I am I, then well I know
Your weeping sister is no wife of mine,
Nor to her bed no homage do I owe.
Far more, far more, to you do I decline.
O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note
To drown me in thy sister’s flood of tears.
Sing, Siren, for thyself, and I will dote.
Spread o’er the silver waves thy golden hairs,
And as a bed I’ll take them and there lie,
And in that glorious supposition think
He gains by death that hath such means to
die.
Let love, being light, be drownèd if she sink.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
3:2:31 to 3:2:54

27. +
The Wooing
Antipholus wooing Luciana is successful in the sense that he is
incredibly charming and expresses his love eloquently most likely
causing unwanted feelings in Luciana. She would have had to feel
something with the way Antipholus S was speaking about her, with
such an incredible desire and even desperation. She feels awkward
and taken aback by the entire situation because she still believes that
this man is her sister’s husband. So in that sense he is not
successful because she runs of flustered. [. . .] This wooing scene
was fun to read, silly, and Antipholus S was incredibly charming. If he
were any other man but the believed husband of Luciana’s sister,
then she would be sure to have fallen head over heels for the
incredibly charming Antipholus of Syracuse.

28. +
QHQ
1. Q: What is the significance of the ocean in the play, and why is it repeatedly
referenced by characters?
Antipholus S. I to the world am like a drop of water
That in the ocean seeks another drop,
Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,
Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself.
So I, to find a mother and a brother,
In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself. (1.2.35-40).
Antipholus S. For know, my love, as easy mayst thou fall
A drop of water in the breaking gulf,
And take unmingled thence that drop again
Without addition or diminishing,
As take from me thyself and not me too. (2.2.136-140).
[O]n page 73 he describes Luciana as a siren and mermaid, who in classical
myths is a monster known for luring men into the ocean, typically to eat them.

29. When we enter Antipholus S. we find him as a traveler, unsettled, and
searching. His status and position in life is as a wanderer looking for
his family is very different from his brother, he is the better traveled
twin.
Antipholus E. however is married, of high status with a home in
Ephesus, his position is in the company of merchants and other
wealthy men in the city; even his decision to not actively search for his
twin is displaying perhaps his life priorities. The wandering of one twin
and the settlement of the other serves as a powerful foil in what looks
the same but is markedly different.
Antipholus vs Antipholus
Compare and Contrast one set of the twins. Are they more
alike or different?

30. +
The Dromios: They are just alike
These twins are pretty much the same: they are both slaves, both respect their master and
do whatever they say, plus take abuse from their masters even if it wasn’t justified. I’m
sure they look exactly alike because no one in the story can seem to tell them apart even
though the twins are living through different things and explaining that to people, but
people like their master, or to be precise, Antipholus of Syracuse, thinks his slave is telling
lies because he just spoke with him, even though he was truly talking to two different
people. So these Dromio twins are more alike in ways because both of them can’t figure
out what’s going on [. . .] Dromio of Syracuse even questions [himself], not believing who
he is because through the door another person called themselves Dromio. If Dromio of
Syracuse would have just opened the door to see who these people were, the answer
would’ve been solved, yet these twins aren’t the brightest people, so that trait made them
completely alike in my eyes.

31. +
Question
 Shakespeare’ s choice to make
misidentification unintentional
complicates the issue of both identity
and trickery. Misidentification causes a
rapid switching between social positions.
For instance, Adriana is both an alluring
temptress who tries to trick a traveler and
a loyal wife who mistakenly invites an
impostor into her house. Find a scene of
intentional or unintentional deception.
Who is the trickster? What are the results
of the miscommunication or
misidentification?
Adriana the Temptress?

32. + Find a scene of intentional or unintentional deception. Who is the
trickster? What are the results of the miscommunication or
misidentification?
I would say, act 4 scene 1 is the best example of unintentional misidentification and the one that really
shows what the play is really all about. Antipholus of Ephesus is mistaken for his brother from
Syracuse who was given the chain from the goldsmith the night before. Although Antipholus of
Syracuse had no idea why he was being given the chain and even told the goldsmith that he would
not be able to pay him back, the smith gave him the chain anyways thinking of it as a joke. As we see,
the next morning confusion and miscommunication ensues and Antipholus of Ephesus is wrongly
accused and thus imprisoned. Everything is sorted and explained by the end, but at this moment in
the play, Antipholus of Ephesus is having the worst 24 hours of his life. Since the arrival of the second
set of twins, it has taken the biggest toll on Antipholus of Ephesus. It is he who was shut out of his
own home, left to find shelter elsewhere, and then wrongly accused of treachery, We cannot really
blame anyone in the play, for not even they know what truly is going on. The goldsmith is justified in
thinking he is being tricked, for all he knows is that he gave the chain to someone who looks and talks
just like the Antipholus he knows. As we discussed in class, when we confuse one person for another,
although at the time we don’t find it funny, many times once we reflect on the situation we usually find
it comedic.

33. +
Question
 Discuss the theme of Identity as it is presented in the play.
Is there a difference between public/social identities and
private identities?

34. +
Question: Are the Dromios servants or slaves? Are their beatings meant
to be farcical? Are farce and social custom interconnected? Can you
think of a contemporary example?
The Dromios are clearly slaves. Some may claim
that are servants [based on] Dromio E.’s wife and
Dromio S.’s banter with Antipholus of Syracuse.
However, while those facts make their life more
pleasant it does not make paid servants who have
freedom. Both Dromios are subjected to beating
when they displease their master, must do as they
instructed, and are never shown being paid for their
work; which are all key components of slavery.
[W]ithout inspecting the nature of slavery in that era closer
its difficult to tell if the Dromios are chattle slaves or not [. .
.] Its clear the nature of their enslavement can be further
clarified by their use by both Antipholi as stewards, they’re
sent to complete tasks with money and put things in order
for the Antipholi [. . .] More than that its clear that the
Ephasus pair are more chummy and lighthearted while the
Syracusion pair are somewhat more cerebral, so their
separate settings have affected them to be fairly different.
The beatings that the Dromios suffer are, by all indications, meant to be farcical. By portraying violence as
humorous and more irritating to the recipient than actually harmful, it normalizes the behavior. Another example of
the way social customs are connected to comedy is the way that in contemporary farce, men are commonly cast
as trans women. In many cases, dramatic irony comes through with a man attempting to make a move on the
trans character, unaware that she is “actually a man.” The reduction of trans people to liars and punchlines make
those who are inclined toward prejudice against them feel validated in their bigoted behavior. In addition, like the
way that the Antipholus brothers are not antagonized for their violence, the transphobia displayed in contemporary
farce is portrayed as relatable rather than hateful.

35. + Questions Discuss Pinch and his role in
the story
The lines below are thought to
be the longest insult in all of
the plays of Shakespeare is
found in
The Comedy of Errors, 5:1
[Pinch’s] role coming in is to cure Adrianna husbands
madness, he serves as a false end to her problems. Being
a conjurer he is sought out by Adrianna to drive the spirits
from her husbands body and Dromio of Ephesus’s as well.
Pinch attempts to exorcise Antipholus of Ephesus and
Dromio of Ephesus, however it of course does not work
since neither are possessed. His failure is a comedic
device, and when they light his beard on fire he is left in a
one down position. The practice of exorcism is a strongly in
line with the catholic faith, with a sect of priests(Jesuits)
specifically trained for it. Pinches failed attempt at exorcism
as well as being allied with the scornful Adrianna, appear to
be a way to mock catholics and make their behavior seem
undesirable, since Adriannas behavior is undesirable at the
time.

36. +
QHQ
Q: Lady Abbess (Emilia) never looked for her long lost
sons, even though the one of Ephesus was taken from
her and the other one of Syracuse was lost from the
shipwreck, why did she never try to look for them?
Q: With the setting of the play in what could be
considered far-off and exotic Turkey, could Shakespeare
have been playing with his audiences idea of what the
near east is like by adding in the possibility of witchcraft
to the story?

37. +
The Royal Shakespeare Company: Satan Come
Forth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd-1M2VQnzQ
Act 4 Scene 4 line 51 to line 136 10:46
This is the scene
starring Pinch

38. +
Recitation: A Sonnet or Soliloquy 50 points
Each person in class will do one presentation of either
a sonnet or soliloquy (speech/monologue), including a
written summary—half a page describing the content
and the formal elements —and a memorized
performance. You may read the summary either before
or after your recitation. Please be prepared to turn in
an appropriately formatted (MLA) copy of your
summary. Please bring a printed copy of your
memorized speech for the overhead projector. You
may complete this assignment beginning week four. A
sign up sheet will be available, but piece selection will
be based on the order of post #3.

39. If you don’t know where to start, check the links on the website
to the sonnets and great soliloquys, speeches, and
monologues.
Read: The three trickster articles under
“Course Readings”
Post #3: QHQ on one of the three. Don’t all
do the same article!
Choose your recitation piece and post the
following information:
1. Title of Sonnet or Title of Play and
Act/Scene/Lines. Remember, you may not
duplicate another student’s recitation, so
note which are posted before you choose.
Posting order will be the final
determination of who chose first. Bring the
information to our next meeting.