The Comedy of Errors

No Fear Translation
Study Guide

The Comedy of Errors is a play by William Shakespeare that was first performed in 1594. Read The Comedy of Errors here, with side-by-side No Fear translations into modern English.

Act 1

Scene 1
Egeon comes to Ephesus looking or his long-lost wife and son, but is arrested for illegally entering the city. He has one day to raise the ransom for his crime, or face execution.

Scene 2
Antipholus of Syracuse is also in Ephesus looking for his long-lost mother and twin brother, but he is mistaken for his twin Antipholus of Ephesus, by the slave Dromio of Ephesus, who is the twin brother of his own slave, Dromio of Syracuse.

Act 2

Scene 1
Dromio of Ephesus returns home and tells Adriana that her husband, Antipholus of Ephesus is acting crazy. Adriana sends Dromio to bring her husband home.

Scene 2
Antipholus of Syracuse finds Dromio of Syracuse and argues with him about their earlier conversation, which was actually with Dromio of Ephesus. Adriana spots Antipholus of Syracuse and forces him to come home with her, because she mistakenly believes he is her husband.

Act 3

Scene 1
Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus are locked out of their house.

Scene 2
Antipholus of Syracuse meets Luciana and falls in love with her, but Luciana believes that Antipholus of Syracuse is Antipholus of Ephesus.

Act 4

Scene 1
Antipholus of Ephesus is arrested when he refuses to pay for a gold chain that was delivered to Antipholus of Syracuse.

Scene 2
Adriana is angry to learn that the man who she believes to be her husband was flirting with her sister, but she still sends Dromio of Syracuse with ransom money for him when she hears that he has been arrested.

Scene 3
As Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse plan to leave the city, a woman confronts Antipholus about a ring that Antipholus of Ephesus borrowed from her. When Antipholus of Syracuse claims to know nothing about it, the woman decides to tell Adriana that Antipholus stole the ring.

Scene 4
Adriana brings a would-be sorcerer to her husband, because she believes that the explanation for all the confusion is that he must possessed.

Act 5

Scene 1
Both sets of twins and their father end up in the same place at the same time and the Abbess is able to explain the confusion, because she is mother to the Antipholus twins, and wife to Egeon.

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