The Comedy of Errors: Third Series (The Arden Shakespeare Third Series)

I love Arden Shakespeare and the Kindle editions are great, especially useful in working with footnotes and endnotes. This play is so underrated.

It was great!

Written by a pro.

So it is Harold Bloom who boldly declares that, “personality, in our sense, is a Shakespearean invention,” but is also his “greatest originality” and “the authentic cause of his perpetual pervasiveness.” Whether one agrees with Bloom’s claim or not, anyone who has ever experienced Shakespeare has seen their own reflection in the mirror he holds up to his audience. This seems an inevitable line of thinking when reading Kent Cartwright’s introduction to The Arden Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. With an eye on the human psyche, Cartwright tackles the meanings of error, the obscurity and changeability of identity, the staying effects of magic, the unpredictability of language, the mysterious nature of objects, the contrast between commerce and faith, and the pliability of time, as well as gives a thorough account of the play’s influences and its staging. For this, the Arden’s Errors becomes a companion for actor, student, and teacher alike, giving its reader a meaningful foundation on which to experience Shakespeare’s comedy. But also we are reminded of what makes this comedy endurable, why it is so versatile, and how it comes to be a significant contribution to the human invention.From the opening sections of the introduction, we are given a glimpse at the deeply rooted forms of psychological invention at play in Errors. In his adept exploration of the term “error,” Cartwright takes note of its various definitions, concentrating on those that concern the play, the most suggestive of which is that pertaining to mistaken notions or beliefs. As he remarks, “the play’s crucial errors” are generated internally, from “a character’s interpretive framework or set of prior assumptions.” Rather than mistaken identity, one is dealing with a false impression or a misreading of another, an error that flows “from biases and passions that reflect a particular sense of self or world.” One of the strengths of this and each section of the introduction is Cartwright’s exhaustive examples from Shakespeare’s text, and his ability to speak to the importance, and exploration, of the self that is most prevalent during the Renaissance.True to form, the theme of identity is carried throughout. In his section on the cultural world, he discusses the psychological power of magic, suggesting the potency of words and their ability to call things forth, to make manifest and to materialize. Shakespeare’s play on language, such as repetitions and displacements, tends to mean something different within the comedy, “an uncanniness that permeates Ephesian life, its effects wandering from scene to scene.” Speech may appear mysterious and deceitful when a character does not recognize another, suggesting that context and dependability rely on identity. But also objects play their part, such as the chain that comes into being and evolves as the plot develops. Given meaning depending on its receiver, an object represents a multitude of things, as well as stands for a means of circulation and exchange. For instance, as Cartwright so convincingly remarks, the coin that is required to free Ephesian Antipholus is considered both payment and “redemption,” as Dromio refers to it, and so it evokes Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, which is “filled with the language of redemption.”Some of Cartwright’s strongest critical work here lies in his examination of Errors’s setting, the world in which it exists, that which is a “‘poetic geography’ of layered frames of historical references and figurative meanings.” The palimpsestic and multicultural setting is rich, as he suggests, and inspires inquiry into what such a place calls forth. Ephesus is mentioned in the New Testament as a wealthy Greek city in Asia Minor, poised along trade routes, and famous for its profitability and commercialism, but also known for its pagan sorcery before becoming a hub of Christianity. As Cartwright aptly remarks, it is also the site of the repudiation of Nestorianism, “the doctrine that Christ is two distinct persons,” double identity being a large part of Errors. His work in this section is supported by the many stagings of the play, which have taken the setting to new places, ones as intricate and meaningful as the original, speaking to the versatility of Shakespeare’s imagined domain.As we consider Shakespeare’s work and its original purpose, let us return to the idea of performance. The benefits of the Arden’s Errors are certainly attributed to its clean text and copious notes, as well as the longer notes that emphasize the collective nature of the playwright’s work. A phrase as poetic as “Time’s deformed hand” (5.1.299) is layered when one considers “the withered hand of Father Time,” and that Shakespeare’s singular use of “deformed” here is unique. The note argues for it as a transferred epithet which makes the effect part of the agency, and therefore making Time and Egeon similar in essence. The remarks on staging are particularly keen as well, for in them Cartwright speaks not only to the scholar but the artistic director, dispensing valuable advice on how to play certain scenes based on previous productions. For instance, his suggestion to put Adriana on a balcony for the ‘lock-out’ scene may “allow for a widening ripple of comic disruption” and thus better suit the “comic failed ending” at the play’s mid-point.The detailed scholarship of Cartwright’s thematic introduction suits the Bard’s most adaptable play, and unearths the textual gems for any critical reader, enthusiastic performer, or budding newcomer.*I was asked to review this edition for the Sixteenth Century Journal. This review appears in XLIX/3 (2018).*

I'm really pleased with the 3rd series of the Arden Shakespeare. With this installment, the editor seems overly fussy, cataloguing the Greek technical term for every last rhetorical device. TMI

I ended up buying a hard copy because this Kindle version has poor navigation. I have an older iPad, so maybe that was part of the problem. But I also wonder if this type of book - with verse text and many footnotes - doesn't work well in this format. Just an FYI for those looking to benefit from what the Arden offers!

This product says it is the "Arden Shakespeare Third Series." But what "Feedbooks" has done is stuck a very poor copy of the paperback cover from the real Arden product on a hard cover, and then included the noncopyrighted Shakespeare play only in the book. There are NONE of the Arden notes, introduction, etc. Don't get taken!