The Comedy of Errors by Kent Cartwright

Author:Kent Cartwright [Cartwright, Kent]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2016-10-01T02:17:40+00:00

24 merchants] merchants’ Oxf1

32 commend deliver, entrust (OED v. 1)

32, 33 content contentment. At 32 content suggests ‘pleasure’, at 33 a more inward state of ‘satisfaction’ (see OED n.2 1); also perhaps the ‘thing contained’, as in the substance of a conception (OED n.1 4).

35–40 Antipholus likens himself to a drop of water that falls into the ocean in search of another drop but whose resulting dissolution and absorption make the quest impossible, since it erodes his sense of identity. The proverbial figure ‘As lost as a drop of water in the sea’ (Dent, D613) signifies likeness to others and, here, disintegration (35–6). Later, Adriana will use this simile to describe marriage; see 2.2.131–5 and n. The image develops from ‘Egeon’s account of his shipwreck and parallels his story of searching by sea’ (Ard2). Water references punctuate CE; see e.g. 3.2.45–52 and n. On water-dissolution, see also TGV 3.2.6–8, R2 4.1.260–2, AC 4.14.9–11. The comparison may recall Messenio’s observation on the Menaechmi’s likeness: ‘water isn’t more similar to water anywhere … than he is to you and you in turn to him’ (Men., 1089–90). For related images, see Plautus’ Miles Gloriosus (551–2), which Shakespeare knew, his Amphitruo (601), a source play for CE, and his Bacchides (Fragments v), a comedy that features twin sisters and mentions Ephesus.

37 Who the prior drop (35); ‘who’ in Shakespeare often refers to a personified inanimate object (Ard2).

falling Cf. ‘fall’ at 2.2.131 (see n.).

find … forth find out (OED forth adv. 8); forth occurs likewise at 4.4.96, 98.

38 Unseen, inquisitive modifying Who (37). F encloses the two adjectives in parentheses, as if qualifying the same object, necessarily Who, since inquisitive could hardly apply to fellow (37). Unseen refers to the drop-as-Antipholus rather than to the drop-as-object of the search: because he has become invisible, Antipholus cannot find his mother and brother. Unseen might also suggest ‘unknown’ or ‘unnoticed’ (Ard2), as in LLL 5.2.358, Son 118.3. For inquisitive, cf. 1.1.125.

confounds himself both defeats and confuses himself. Various meanings of ‘confound’ pertain: (1) ‘defeat utterly, bring to ruin’ (OED v. 1a); (2) ‘throw into confusion of mind or feelings’ (OED 4); (3) ‘waste’ (OED 1e); and (4) ‘mix up or mingle so that the elements become difficult to distinguish’ (OED 6). By this last definition, confounds himself means ‘loses his sense of identity’; cf. lose myself at 30, 40. Shakespeare often uses ‘confound’ reflexively to mean ‘confuse’ (e.g. R3 4.4.262), but he employs it variously (see e.g. Tit 4.2.6, LLL 5.2.397, R2 5.3.86).

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