The acclaimed Pelican Shakespeare series edited by A. R. Braunmuller and Stephen Orgel The legendary Pelican Shakespeare series features authoritative and meticulously researched texts paired with scholarship by renowned Shakespeareans. Each book includes an essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare’s time, an introduction to the individual play, and a detailed note on the text used. Updated by general editors Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller, these easy-to-read editions incorporate over thirty years of Shakespeare scholarship undertaken since the original series, edited by Alfred Harbage, appeared between 1956 and 1967. With definitive texts and illuminating essays, the Pelican Shakespeare will remain a valued resource for students, teachers, and theater professionals for many years to come. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. “Gorgeous new Shakespeare paperbacks.” —Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings “I have been using the Pelican Shakespeare for years in my lecture course--it's invaluable, the best individual-volume series available for students.” — Marjorie Garber, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English and Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April, 1564, and his birth is traditionally celebrated on April 23. The facts of his life, known from surviving documents, are sparse. He died on April 23, 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. A. R. Braunmuller is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has written critical volumes on George Peele and George Chapman and has edited plays in both the Oxford ( King John ) and Cambridge ( Macbeth ) series of Shakespeare editions. He is also general editor of The New Cambridge Shakespeare. Stephen Orgel is the Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of the Humanities at Stanford University and general editor of the Cambridge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture. His books include Imagining Shakespeare , The Authentic Shakespeare , Impersonations: The Performance of Gender in Shakespeare’s England and The Illusion of Power . The Comedy of Errors ¥ I.1 Enter the Duke of Ephesus, with the Merchant [Egeon] of Syracuse, Jailer, and other Attendants. egeon Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall, And by the doom of death end woes and all. duke Merchant of Syracusa, plead no more. I am not partial to infringe our laws. 4 The enmity and discord which of late Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your duke To merchants, our well-dealing countrymen, Who, wanting guilders to redeem their lives, 8 Have sealed his rigorous statutes with their bloods, Excludes all pity from our threat'ning looks. 10 For since the mortal and intestine jars 11 'Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us, It hath in solemn synods been decreed, 13 Both by the Syracusians and ourselves, To admit no traffic to our adverse towns: 15 Nay more, if any born at Ephesus 16 Be seen at Syracusian marts and fairs; Again, if any Syracusian born Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies, His goods confiscate to the duke's dispose, 20 Unless a thousand marks be levid, 21 To quit the penalty and to ransom him. 22 Thy substance, valued at the highest rate, Cannot amount unto a hundred marks; Therefore, by law thou art condemned to die. egeon Yet this my comfort: when your words are done, My woes end likewise with the evening sun. duke Well, Syracusian, say in brief the cause Why thou departed'st from thy native home, And for what cause thou cam'st to Ephesus. 30 egeon A heavier task could not have been imposed Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable; Yet that the world may witness that my end Was wrought by nature, not by vile offense, 34 I'll utter what my sorrow gives me leave. In Syracusa was I born, and wed Unto a woman, happy but for me, And by me, had not our hap been bad. 38 With her I lived in joy: our wealth increased By prosperous voyages I often made 40 To Epidamnum; till my factor's death, 41 And the great care of goods at random left, Drew me from kind embracements of my spouse; From whom my absence was not six months old, Before herself (almost at fainting under The pleasing punishment that women bear) Had made provision for her following me, And soon and safe arrivd where I was. There had she not been long but she