Source: "Introduction," in The Comedy of Errors, Cambridge University Press, 1988, pp. 12-18.

[In the following excerpt, Dorsch covers the main action and characters in the play. He notes especially that the twin Dromios are vastly different in character; that the women in the play "stand out more vividly than the men" (the Courtezan is 'just the kind of girl a sensible man would look far if he had a nagging wife"); and that the Abbess (Aemilia) is a powerful presence in the play.]

The Comedy of Errors is not only very good theatre, it is also very good reading. It is a finely-balanced mixture of pathos and suspense, illusion and delusion, love turned bitter and love that is sweet, farce and fun. The fun begins in the second scene with the entry of the Syracusan pair and is sustained with great verve and vivacity through the next...