Begging and Poor in The Comedy of Errors (1594)

In The Comedy of Errors, "beg" occurs only four times; "poor," 10.
The story contains two sets of twins, and each set bears the same name: Two of Antipholus, two of Dromio, the former raised to be masters, the latter bought and raised to be servants (slaves).
- Because "their parents were exceeding *poor*," the Dromio twins were "bought and brought up to attend" Egeon's sons (1.1, an act of charity, or exploitation, or both).
- But Egeon of Syracuse has traveled to Ephesus as a refugee to find his later-separated sons, risking death by execution because Syracuse and Ephesus are at war. - Solinus, Duke of Ephesus, tells Egeon to *beg* or borrow the money for his ransom to spare his life (1.1).
- Luciana, sister-in-law to Antipholus of Ephesus, tells her sister that the love she *begged* for her sister from the Antipholus she believed was her sister's husband, he begged of her (4.2, because unknown to her, the Antipholus who begged love of her is the other twin).
- Dromio of Ephesus describes how his master often beats him, and how if one day he becomes a *beggar*, he will probably be beaten door to door (4.4).

[Title page The Comedie of Errors, cropped, from the First Folio of 1623. From the Folger Shakespeare Library. Creative Commons.]

Naseeb Shaheen (1999) finds 34 Biblical or religious allusions in the play, including Acts 19:10 (Paul preaching two years to the Ephesians), and the Letter to the Ephesians.

Also, in Acts 27-28, Paul is shipwrecked on Malta, and in Acts 28:12, he is transferred to another ship which goes to Syracuse, which is featured in the comedy, so Shakespeare seems to have had Paul in mind. But Shaheen rejects Acts 27-28 because, to him, the details of Paul's shipwreck and journey to Syracuse are too unlike those in the play (!?).

Shaheen also notes the allusion to the Genesis 25-33 tale of Jacob and Esau, non-identical twins who had a rivalry over who would get the birthright (Gn 25:19-34, 27-33).

Some might claim (badly, wrongly) that a birthright would seem to affirm Jacob's mastery over his brother, perhaps justifying the mastery of each Antipholus over their respective Dromio-slave.

But twins and the multiplication of mirrors in the play ("hold the mirror up nature"?) may also have called to mind for Shakespeare’s audience the second of "the greatest laws," to love neighbor as self (Mk 12:31, Mt 22:39, Lk 10:27, Lv 19:18): This implies seeing an image of one's self in one's neighbor (as Hamlet does in Laertes, in Hamlet 5.2).

So in contexts of war and religious sanctuary, in spite of (and by means of) farcical fun, we find that war refugee Egeon wishes to be treated with mercy by Solinus, as Solinus might like to be treated; and the Dromio twins, treated by their twin masters as their masters would like to be treated (or at least beaten less often).

The play has an exorcism parody, like that of Malvolio in Twelfth Night (1601), another play involving a shipwreck. In the end, it also features happy reunions, not only of the twins, but also of Egeon and his wife, like the ending reunion of Pericles with his wife, Thaisa, in Pericles (1607-8) long after tragedy at sea.

[Image (cropped) via Royal Shakespeare Company website; original image here. Fair use.]

The Comedy of Errors was produced this summer by the Royal Shakespeare Company, toured to a number of cities, and is playing this month in London.
See a good BSL (British Sign Language) Synopsis here,
a trailer here,
and a "creative conversation" about the play and the production in the context of the Covid pandemic, here.

~~~~~~~~~~

I have mentioned in previous blog posts that I use the Advanced Search Engine at OpenSourceShakespeare to search for instances of particular words in Shakespeare's plays. I'd like to explain how I do that, in case any of my readers may benefit. There may also be among my readers those who are much better at this than I am, so feel free to leave comments about your experience or recommendations.

First, one should note that there are some searches that might overwhelm the search engine: If a word or phrase appears too often in the works of Shakespeare, the search engine may list, alphabetically, some of the plays where that word or phrase is found, but one has to pay attention to see if other plays were cut off.

Second, some tips for narrowing the searches:

If you search only for "beg," the search will include words you don't want in which "beg" appears, such as begin, began, begun, beguile, begotten, etc. So besides searching FOR a word, it's helpful to include in the advanced search some examples of things you're NOT looking for.

If you enter "beg" as the word you're searching for, and begu as something you're NOT searching for, then this will eliminate both "begun" and "beguile." You have a limited number of options, so it can help to be a bit judicious about what you're searching for, and what you're not. Here's an example of what I did in searching for "beg/beggar/begging/beggars" in Taming of the Shrew:

If you're interested in seeing EVERY instance of "beg" and "poor" that I found in preparing for today's blog post, go to OpenSourceShakespeare's advanced search page, and try it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
INDEX OF POSTS IN THIS SERIES ON THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS:
See this link:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/02/index-series-on-rich-man-and-beggar.html


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hamlet quotes: All quotes from Hamlet (in this particular series on The Rich Man and Lazarus in Hamlet) are taken from the Modern (spelling), Editor's Version at InternetShakespeare via the University of Victoria in Canada.
- To find them in the first place, I often use the advanced search feature at OpenSourceShakespeare.org.

Bible quotes from the Geneva translation, widely available to people of Shakespeare's time, are taken from an internet source somewhat close to their original spelling, from studybible.info, and in a modern spelling, from biblegateway.com.
- Quotes from the Bishop's bible, also available in Shakespeare's lifetime and read in church, are taken from studybible.info.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
YOU CAN SUPPORT ME on a one-time "tip" basis on Ko-Fi:
https://ko-fi.com/pauladrianfried

IF YOU WOULD PREFER to support me on a REGULAR basis,
you may do so on Ko-Fi, or here on Patreon:
https://patreon.com/PaulAdrianFried
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for reading!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.

Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html

I post every week, so please visit as often as you like and consider FOLLOWING.
To find the FOLLOW button, go to the home page: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/
see the = drop-down menu with three lines in the upper left.
From there you can click FOLLOW and see options.