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Zusatztext Praise for William Shakespeare: Complete Works “Remarkable . . . makes Shakespeare’s extraordinary accomplishment more vivid than ever.”—James Shapiro! professor! Columbia University! bestselling author of A Year in the Life of Shakespeare: 1599 “A feast of literary and historical information.”— The Wall Street Journal Informationen zum Autor William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was a poet, playwright, and actor who is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers in the history of the English language. Often referred to as the Bard of Avon, Shakespeare's vast body of work includes comedic, tragic, and historical plays; poems; and 154 sonnets. His dramatic works have been translated into every major language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Klappentext Hilarious fun! this early comedy is filled with the merry violence of slapstick and farce. When two sets of twins! separated and apparently lost to each other! all end up in the rowdy! rollicking city of Ephesus! the stage is set for mix-ups! mayhem! and mistaken identity-plus the timeless puns! jokes! gags! and suspense that makes this play a wonderful theatrical frolic and a brilliant tour de force of language and laughter. 1.1 A Enter the Duke of Ephesus, with [Egeon] the mer- chant 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. 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, Have sealed his rigorous statutes with their bloods, Excludes all pity from our threat’ning looks. For since the mortal and intestine jars Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us, It hath in solemn synods been decreed, Both by the Syracusians and ourselves, To admit no traffic to our adverse towns. Nay, more, if any born at Ephesus Be seen at any 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, Unless a thousand marks be levièd To quit the penalty and to ransom him. Thy substance, valued at the highest rate, Cannot amount unto a hundred marks; Therefore by law thou art condemned to die. 32unspeakable indescribable. (But with a punning oxymoron on the literal sense: Egeon will speak that which cannot be spoken.) 34by nature i.e., by natural affection; here, a father’s love 35gives me leave allows me. 37–8 happy . . . bad happy only in having me, and happy indeed through me if we had not suffered misfortune. 41Epidamnum (So spelled in Plautus’s The Menaechmi); Epidamnus, a port on the coast of modern Albania. factor’s agent’s 42care of anxiety about 52As that they 54mean of low birth 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. 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, 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. With her I lived in joy; our wealth increased By prosperous voyages ...
