THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
AEGEON was a merchant of Syracuse, which is a seaport in
Sicily. His wife was AEmilia, and they were very happy until AEgeon's manager
died, and he was obliged to go by himself to a place called Epidamnum on the
Adriatic. As soon as she could AEmilia followed him, and after they had been
together some time two baby boys were born to them. The babies were exactly
alike; even when they were dressed differently they looked the same.
And now you must believe a very strange thing. At the same
inn where these children were born, and on the same day, two baby boys were
born to a much poorer couple than AEmilia and AEgeon; so poor, indeed, were the
parents of these twins that they sold them to the parents of the other twins.
AEmilia was eager to show her children to her friends in
Syracuse, and in treacherous weather she and AEgeon and the four babies sailed
homewards.
They were still far from Syracuse when their ship sprang a
leak, and the crew left it in a body by the only boat, caring little what
became of their passengers.
AEmilia fastened one of her children to a mast and tied one
of the slave-children to him; AEgeon followed her example with the remaining
children. Then the parents secured themselves to the same masts, and hoped for
safety.
The ship, however, suddenly struck a rock and was split in
two, and AEmilia, and the two children whom she had tied, floated away from
AEgeon and the other children. AEmilia and her charges were picked up by some
people of Epidamnum, but some fishermen of Corinth took the babies from her by
force, and she returned to Epidanmum alone, and very miserable. Afterwards she
settled in Ephesus, a famous town in Asia Minor.
AEgeon and his charges were also saved; and, more fortunate
than AEmilia, he was able to return to Syracuse and keep them till they were
eighteen. His own child he called Antipholus, and the slavechild he called
Dromio; and, strangely enough, these were the names given to the children who
floated away from him.
