Knowledge house - The Complete Works of Shakespeare

Table of Contents

Comedies Comedies COMEDIES The Comedy of Errors The Taming of the Shrew The Two Gentlemen of Verona Love’s Labor’s Lost A Midsummer Night’s Dream The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor Much Ado about Nothing As You Like It Twelfth Night, or What You Will The History of Troilus and Cressida All’s Well That Ends Well Measure for Measure

The Comedy of Errors William Shakespeare

The Taming of the Shrew William Shakespeare

The Two Gentlemen of Verona William Shakespeare

Love’s Labor’s Lost William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream William Shakespeare

The Merchant of Venice William Shakespeare

The Merry Wives of Windsor William Shakespeare

Much Ado about Nothing William Shakespeare

As You Like It William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, or What You Will

The History of Troilus and Cressida

All’s Well That Ends Well

Measure for Measure

Histories

The First Part of Henry the Sixth

The Second Part of Henry the Sixth

The Third Part of Henry the Sixth

The Tragedy of Richard the Third

The Life and Death of King John

The Tragedy of King Richard the Second

The First Part of Henry the Fourth

The Second Part of Henry the Fourth

The Life of Henry the Fifth

The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth

Tragedies

The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice

The Tragedy of King Lear

The Tragedy of Macbeth

The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra

The Tragedy of Coriolanus

The Life of Timon of Athens

Romances

Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Cymbeline

The Winter’s Tale

The Tempest

The Two Noble Kinsmen

Poems

Venus and Adonis

The Rape of Lucrece

Sonnets

A Lover’s Complaint

The Passionate Pilgrim

The Phoenix and Turtle

COMEDIES

The Comedy of Errors William Shakespeare

The Taming of the Shrew William Shakespeare

The Two Gentlemen of Verona William Shakespeare

Love’s Labor’s Lost William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream William Shakespeare

The Merchant of Venice William Shakespeare

The Merry Wives of Windsor William Shakespeare

Much Ado about Nothing William Shakespeare

As You Like It William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, or What You Will

The History of Troilus and Cressida

All’s Well That Ends Well

Measure for Measure

William Shakespeare

( 1592–1594 )

First Folio, 1623

errors

¶

Act I

Sc. I Sc. II

Act II

Sc. I Sc. II

Act III

Sc. I Sc. II

Act IV

Sc. I Sc. II Sc. III Sc. IV

Act V

Sc. I

[Dramatis Personae

Solinus , Duke of Ephesus

Egeon , a merchant of Syracuse

Antipholus of Ephesus ,

Antipholus of Syracuse , twin brothers, and sons to Egeon and Aemilia

Dromio of Ephesus ,

Dromio of Syracuse , twin brothers, and bondmen to the two Antipholuses

Balthazar , a merchant

Angelo , a goldsmith

First Merchant of Ephesus, friend to Antipholus of Syracuse

Second Merchant of Ephesus, to whom Angelo is a debtor

Doctor Pinch , a conjuring schoolmaster

Aemilia , wife to Egeon, an abbess at Ephesus

Adriana , wife to Antipholus of Ephesus

Luciana , her sister

Luce , servant to Adriana (also known as Nell)

Courtezan

Jailer, Headsman, Messenger, Officers, and other Attendants

Scene: Ephesus ]

Enter the Duke of Ephesus with [Egeon] the merchant of Syracusa, Jailer [with Officers], and other Attendants.

Ege.

Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall,

And by the doom of death end woes and all.

Duke.

Merchant of Syracusa, plead no more.

I am not partial to infringe our laws;

The enmity and discord which of late

Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your Duke

To merchants, our well-dealing countrymen,

Who, wanting guilders to redeem their lives,

Have seal’d his rigorous statutes with their bloods,

Excludes all pity from our threat’ning looks:

For since the mortal and intestine jars

’Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us,

It hath in solemn synods been decreed,

Both by the Syracusians and ourselves,

To admit no traffic to our adverse towns:

Nay more, if any born at Ephesus be seen

At any Syracusian marts and fairs;

Again, if any Syracusian born

Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies,

His goods confiscate to the Duke’s dispose,

Unless a thousand marks be levied

To quit the penalty and to ransom him.

Thy substance, valued at the highest rate,

Cannot amount unto a hundred marks,

Therefore by law thou art condemn’d to die.

Ege.

Yet this my comfort, when your words are done,

My woes end likewise with the evening sun.

Duke.

Well, Syracusian; say in brief the cause

Why thou departedst from thy native home,

And for what cause thou cam’st to Ephesus.

Ege.

A heavier task could not have been impos’d

Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable:

Yet that the world may witness that my end

Was wrought by nature, not by vile offense,

I’ll utter what my sorrow gives me leave.

In Syracusa was I born, and wed

Unto a woman, happy but for me,

And by me, had not our hap been bad:

With her I liv’d in joy; our wealth increas’d

By prosperous voyages I often made

To Epidamium, till my factor’s death,

And [the] great care of goods at randon left,

Drew me from kind embracements of my spouse;

From whom my absence was not six months old

Before herself (almost at fainting under

The pleasing punishment that women bear)

Had made provision for her following me,

And soon, and safe, arrived where I was.

There had she not been long but she became

A joyful mother of two goodly sons:

And, which was strange, the one so like the other

As could not be distinguish’d but by names.

That very hour, and in the self-same inn,

A mean woman was delivered

Of such a burthen male, twins both alike.

Those, for their parents were exceeding poor,

I bought, and brought up to attend my sons.

My wife, not meanly proud of two such boys,

Made daily motions for our home return:

Unwilling I agreed. Alas! too soon

We came aboard.

A league from Epidamium had we sail’d

Before the always-wind-obeying deep

Gave any tragic instance of our harm:

But longer did we not retain much hope;