Since finishing the Bible and the Qur'an there has been a hole in my life the size of a Big Reading Challenge, so I have decided to read the 38 extant plays of William Shakespeare. I now feel ready to appreciate Shakespeare and undo the damage done by my high school English lessons. (I'm still not ready to read Dickens: the thought of doing so gives me flashbacks to over-analysing chapter 8 of 'Great Expectations', filling me with rageful dread.)
I started with 'The Comedy of Errors', Shakespeare's shortest play and one of his earliest. It's about two sets of twins born on the same day, a rich pair and a poor pair. The rich family purchases the poor twins to raise as slaves to the rich twins.
The family (incl. baby slaves) are separated during a shipwreck: the father, a rich baby, and a slave baby end up in Syracuse; the mother, a rich baby, and a slave baby end up in Ephesus. By silly coincidence, both rich twins are called Antipholus. By silly coincidence, both slave twins are called Dromio.
Once they're all grown up, Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse go travelling to seek out the lost brothers; they reach Ephesus, where their twin brothers live with their wives. By silly coincidence, the Antipholus brothers are wearing identical clothing. By silly coincidence, the Dromio brothers are wearing identical clothing. Hilarity ensues.
A few years back, I saw it performed in the gardens of Nottingham Castle. It made me giggle when I saw it then and it made me giggle when I read it this week. It was a good one to start with to get me more used to Shakespearean language: simple, slapstick humour with little subtlety or depth.
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