Why would Antipholus the Native be better mated with one than the other?  In what respects of character would Luciana be apt to attract Antipholus the Stranger more than Adriana would?  Are there signs to show that Adriana and her husband are the more stalwart pair?  Show how admirably the riper characters of the father and mother set off the qualities and relationships of the younger group.

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

The resemblances of the twins externally are counter-balanced by diversities that are internal, so that the possibilities of confusion may be said to be only skin deep.  Does this add to the improbableness of the plot sufficiently to make it a questionable quality of the plot that the characters are so much differentiated, or does it serve rather to enrich the Play and make it far more interesting?  Are there signs of character in Adriana and her husband going to show that they are destined to be happier in their relation to each other than ever before?

VII

SHAKESPEARE’S DEPARTURES FROM PLAUTUS

The omissions and changes Shakespeare made from Plautus’s plot are almost as important in lending his Play a new effect as the additions and entirely original inventions.

Notice the entire omission of the borrowed cloak taken from his wife, Mulier, by Menaechmus and given to the Courtisan, Erotium; also, of the character of the parasite, Peniculus, by means of whom as a spiteful informer the wife is told of her husband’s relations with Erotium and the dinner he proposes to take with her.  Instead of Mulier’s father, Senex, Shakespeare creates the noble Egean, the father of the Twins.  Introducing his plot with the incident of his arrest, he closes it with the still more notable character of the mother whom he gives an important part to play in the happy solution of the difficulties and the re-union.  The part of the Duke and the trade relations of the two cities, the city in Sicily as in Plautus, the other Ephesus, instead of Epidamnum, as in Plautus, are ingenious changes of an external sort.  What is effected by them?  The different treatment of the dinner incident which causes the husband to mean to dine at home, until he finds he cannot, when with others he invites the courtisan to dine with them at an Inn, lends a different color to the story.  What do you think it effects as to character, amusingness, and unity with the plot of mistaken identity?  The courtisan’s open visit to the wife and direct effect upon the plot is in strong contrast to the intrigue of which the wife is informed by a third person.  Bring this out, and show what the influence is.

Compare the argument of Plautus (For this see “First Folio Edition” of “Comedie of Errors,” p. 76) with the opening scene wherein Shakespeare causes Egean to tell the story out of which the Play grows.  In what respects is this an improvement? (See Extract from Ten Brink, p. 183).