The Comedy of Errors

William Shakespeare · c. 1594 CE · Play · English · Renaissance

A merchant of Syracuse is condemned to death in Ephesus unless he can raise a ransom, and tells the duke how a shipwreck long ago split his family in two. In that same town, unknown to each other, walk two sets of identical twins, masters and servants alike, and everyone begins addressing the wrong man. Identity as a case of mistaken delivery.

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Lineage

• adapts ↑ The Menaechmi
  Plautus · c. 200 BCE · Play
• ↓ Twelfth Night
  William Shakespeare · c. 1601 CE · Play — reworks this
• ↓ Pericles
  William Shakespeare · c. 1608 CE · Play — shares sources with this

Attributes

Closest analogues

• Twelfth Night
  William Shakespeare · c. 1601 CE · Play

  69% · 12 shared
  PlayComedyIdentity & SelfAppearance vs RealityRenaissanceThe DoubleComic ResolutionMistaken IdentityThe MirrorThe SeaComicEnglish
• Amphitryon (Plautus)
  Plautus · c. 190 BCE · Play

  61% · 10 shared
  PlayComedyIdentity & SelfAppearance vs RealityThe DoubleComic ResolutionMistaken IdentityThe Mirrorvs PersonComic
• Amphitryon (Molière)
  Molière · 1668 CE · Play

  58% · 9 shared
  PlayComedyIdentity & SelfAppearance vs RealityThe DoubleComic ResolutionMistaken IdentityThe MirrorComic
• The Importance of Being Earnest
  Oscar Wilde · 1895 CE · Play

  54% · 9 shared
  PlayComedyIdentity & SelfAppearance vs RealityThe DoubleComic ResolutionMistaken IdentityComicEnglish
• The Birdcage
  Mike Nichols · 1996 CE · Film

  54% · 8 shared
  ComedyIdentity & SelfAppearance vs RealityEverymanComic ResolutionMistaken Identityvs PersonComic
• Epicoene, or The Silent Woman
  Ben Jonson · 1609 CE · Play

  53% · 10 shared
  PlayComedyIdentity & SelfAppearance vs RealityRenaissanceComic ResolutionMistaken Identityvs PersonComicEnglish