The Girls from Ephesus Laurie Maguire In adapting Roman source material (Plautus' Amphitryo and Menaechmi) for The Comedy of Error's, Shakespeare made two particularly significant changes: he doubled the nurnber of twins, and he changed the setting from Epidamnus to Ephesus. Critics frequently observe the effects of these changes. The first increases "the incidents of error in the play from seventeen to fiftyi1 for, although the resident twin in Menaechmi can be mistaken, there is no one whom he can mistake; and the second introduces the occult, Ephesian deception, sorcery, "emphasizing witchcraft instead of Plautine thievery."Z Both changes-seem to me to be linked, relating to Shakespeare's investigation of duplicity (in both its literal sense of doubleness and its metaphoric sense of deceit), and his analysis of marriage, that institution in which "two become one flesh" (Ephesians 5:31). Although my departure point is source material(Shakespeare's #R decision to change location and double the twins), my destination is women and marriage in The Comedy of Errors, for Ephesus is associated with a pair of models for female conduct (one independent,one submissive)whose polarity resonates throughout the play in the characters of Adriana and Luciana. I want to approach this subject 'through a survey of binaries in Et-rors in 0 order to accentuate a critical mode (thinking and seeing with double vision} which may prove useful in my subsequent discussion of Ephesian women. In considering the conditions of Adriana's marriage, and the thematic double to which they lead—the "double standard," which Adriana protests against in her rhetorical question, "Why should their liberty than ours be more?"—this essay will also focus on twentieth-century stage treatments of Adriana and her society. My subject, then, is not "the boys) from Syracuse' (although the play is presented from the viewpoint of the Syracusans)3 but "the girls from Ephesus." I. DOUBLE VISION defence of female subservience, the second "a picture less of cosmic determinism than circumstantial pragmatism.i9 It is impossible to talk about The Comedy of Errors without Appropriately, the linguistic medium of this play is paradox invoking duality, polarity, antithesis, symbiosis, fusion, binary and the pun (those figures wherein two opposites co-exist) and oppositions. Shakespeare combines Pauline and Plautine sources, duplication Antipholus of Syracuse decides to entertain "sure mixing one of antiquity's most spiritual writers with one of its uncertainty"(2.2.185) and employs,as Karen Newman points out, most salacious. He gives us two kinds of supernatural power,the antithesis, anaphora, chiasmus1 0 Adriana finds conceit to be both prestigidatory exorcisms of Dr. Pinch and the holistic rekgion of her "comfort and [her] injury" (4.2.66). Egeon is asked to the Abbess. He explores two kinds of personality loss, the "speak...griefs unspeakable," and gives a narrative filled with negative in the fragmentation caused by grief, the positive in the paradox: pregnancy is a "pleasing punishment,"11 marine disaster sublunation of love4 Lodgings are characterised by division and separates the family leaving husband and wife "what to delight duality: the Centaur (half man,half beast) and the Phoenix (death in, what to sorrow for" (1.1.32, 46, 106). Dromio of Syracuse and rebirth). There aze two lockout scenes, one each for husband offers the. sage tautology "every why hath a wherefore" (Antipholus of Ephesus) and wife. Emendations by Haiuner and (2.2.430, only to find his master responding in kind: he beats Johnson notwithstanding, the play ends most fittingly, as it Dromio twice, "first—for flouting me, and then.../ For urging it began, with a double birth: the second time'(2.2.44-6). The puns, so often dismissed as the rhetorical embellishments of a youthful Shakespeare, are, as And you, the calendars of their nativity, Grennan points out, the linguistic equivalents of the play's dual Go to a gossibs' feast, and go with me— subjects; thus, when identity is reestablished and family reunited After so long grief, such nativity! (5.1.405-07; my italics)5 in Act 5, the puns all but disappear and language is "restored to a happy singularity."IZ "Who deciphers them?" asks the Duke of the two Antipholi It is fitting, if only serendipitously so, that the textual cruces, (5.1.335), adopting a verb from reading practice, the compare- such as they are, in this single-text play (the only authority for and-contrast exercise of the interpretive critic, the collation work which is the Folio) relate to duplicity (see note 5) and division. of the editor. The characters come only belatedly to a critical Adriana's sister is given two names (Iuliana in stage direction mode forced upon the audience from the beginning. [speech prefix: Iulia.] , on her appearance in 3.2 (TLN 786-7), Egeons romance narrative frames the central scenes of farce, Luciana elsewhere). The first is possibly a compositor's prompting Charles Whitworth to describe the generic hybrid as misreading of the second, or an authorial change of mind; "two works living under one title.i6 The Antipholus twins (also, whatever the cause, the Folio text preserves a divided identity for we note, two works living under one title') have arttimeric Luciana, as for her sister, brother-in-law, and future husband. experiences: Antipholus of Syracuse has a "delightful dream," Adriana's kitchen-maid has also made division of herself. Antipholus of Ephesus a "nightmare~ 8 Antipholus of Syracuse Introduced as "Luce" on her first appearance at 3.1.47(TLN 670), is afraid of foreigners, Antipholus of Ephesus is disoriented by she is elsewhere rechristened "Nell," apparently for the sake of a domestic threat; Antipholus of Syracuse is welcomed and a pun at 3.2.109-10(TLN 900-901); this, like the later "Dowsabel" recognized, Antipholus of Ephesus is rejected and denied. These (4..1.110), is most plausibly a local improvisation of Dromio's and, inverse parallels also find expression within individual appearing only in dialogue, does not confuse.13 characters. Thus, Adriana catalogues her husband's faults but Following McKerrow's "Suggestion," textual critics have long concedes,"I think him better than I say"(4.2.25); Luciana has two confidently believed that the manuscript copy underlying the speeches on marital relations, the first of which offers atext-book printed text of Errors is authorial "foul papers.i14 The titles which 356 THE GIRLS FROM EPHESUS THE COMEDY OF ERRORS: CRTI'ICAL ESSAYS 357 distinguish the Antipholi vary (and are easily confused with the were hearing an early Shakespearean comedy but watching a late consistent titles which distinguish the Dromios) before settling Shakespearean romance. Romance is, as often observed, a into consistency in Act 3; furthermore stage directions provide narrative genre, and in Pericles, for example, the characters narrative information unnecessary for a prompter (e.g. "Enter...a themselves frequently resort to story-telling as if narration will Schoole/master, calla Pinch"; TLN 1321-2) and hence assumed to alleviate their woes. Thus Cleon asks his wife be the literary explanations of an author. Paul Werstine has recently disputed this assumption, showing that when "one My Dionyza, shall we rest us here, addresses the stage directions of Comedy of Errors with questions And by relating tales of others' griefs, about whether their origin is authorial or theatrical, one finds that See if 'twill teach us to forget our own? (1.4.1-3) they offer divided testimony.i15 "Foul papers'and "promptbooks," it seems, like the Antipholi, may be mistaken for each other. The Comedy of Errors has several narrative high-spotsthe woes Confusion and duplication are inherent in all aspects of this play... of Egeon, Adriana, and Antipholus of Ephesus, for example Needless to say, productions capitalize on such doubling, (1.1.31-139; 5.1.136-160; 5.1.214-54). In most productions it is underlining the thematic with the visual. In the Regent's Park clearly the power of Egeon's narrative which motivates the production in 1981 (directed by Ian Talbot), Dr. Pinch was cast Duke's (relative) leniency in 1.118 Dromio of Ephesus also has an against the textlb: a stocky actor, described as a "lean-fac'd opportunity to relate his griefs (4.4.29-39). In Clifford Williams villain;' a "mere anatomy;' a "needy hollow-ey'd, sharp-looking 1962 production for the RSC,Dromio addressed his complaint to wretch;' a "living dead man'(5.1.238-42) served as a reminder the officer, who sat down leisurely to hear this latest narrative. that, as in the case of Antipholus of Syracuse, verbal Williams' production also showed itself most fully aware of identification may be at odds with reality. The Luce of the Folio the conventions of the romance denouement with its reliance on became two maids in Trevor Nunns 1976 RSC production, a an item of personal jewellery to clear up confusions. Antipholus spherical kitchen-maid (Nell), affianced to Dromio of Ephesus, of Ephesus seized gratefully on the Courtesan's introduction of and a tall, slim maid (Luce), servant to Adriana, who was. the ring: "'Tis true, my liege, this ring I had of her'(5.1.278). The subsequently paired off with Dromio of Syracuse. In the 1990 action was halted for relieved exclamations, examination of the RSC production (directed by Ian Judge), the First Merchant (1.2) ring, and attendant stage business, all of which clearly had the was not one but two, dressed identically, sharing lines and status of conclusion for Antipholus. Only when the Courtesan speaking in unison. In the same production the Antipholi and the introduced the new complication—that she had seen Antipholus Dromios became one,"each pair...played...by one actor in two enter the Abbey—did the tone change, the happy ending minds about the whole thing' (Daily Express, 30 April 1990), vanishing as Antipholus fainted.