has just entrusted Dromio of Syracuse with a significant amount of gold, he remarks upon the Ephesian Dromio's exit,

They say this town is full of cozenage:
As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye,
Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind,
Soul-killing witches that deform the body …
(I.ii.97-100)

He is continually astonished that Ephesus's residents give him gifts, invite him to meals, and seem to recognize him through supernatural means. His suspicion of witchcraft peaks during his encounter with a courtesan, a lascivious woman who assumes familiarity with him. He exclaims, "Avaunt, thou witch!" (IV.iii.79), and he and Dromio flee in terror.

Antipholus of Ephesus faces similar issues. Despite living in the city for many years and building a strong reputation as a businessman, when his friends and colleagues encounter the different behavior of Antipholus of Syracuse, they assume the Ephesian Antipholus is acting irrationally. They attribute this supposed madness to possession by evil spirits, instigated by the witches and sorcerers linked to Ephesus. Adriana believes her husband is possessed and seeks the help of Doctor Pinch, a conjurer, to use his sorcery to counteract the demonic spirits troubling her husband. The Ephesian Antipholus vehemently denies being possessed and strikes Doctor Pinch. The doctor then responds,

I charge thee, Sathan, hous'd within this man,
To yield possession to my holy prayers,
And to thy state of darkness hie thee straight:
I conjure thee by all the saints in heaven!
(IV.iv.54-57)

Adriana and Luciana, following the era's best practices for handling the possessed, plan to confine Antipholus of Ephesus in a dark vault and have Doctor Pinch conduct a ritual exorcism. The abbess, informed that Antipholus of Syracuse is possessed, intends to restore his senses using "wholesome syrups, drugs, and holy prayers" (V.i.104). Despite their differing methods, both the abbess and Doctor Pinch view madness and possession as results of external forces.

Interestingly, neither Antipholus of Syracuse nor his twin ever doubts their sanity. Any contemporary portrayal of characters in a similar predicament would likely emphasize internal struggles with sanity and their perception of reality. For Elizabethans, the threat of witchcraft and possession was a genuine concern that provided a religious explanation for any strange or unusual events. In contrast, modern audiences are more inclined to attribute insanity to psychological factors rather than witchcraft or demonic possession. The abbess hints at a psychological understanding when she suggests that Antipholus of Syracuse, whom she mistakenly believes to be Adriana's husband, is distressed by the constant nagging of a shrewish wife. Modern viewers would likely agree with her assessment and expect abnormal human experiences to be interpreted through sociological and psychological lenses, rather than through witchcraft and demonic possession.

Literary Commentary
Arthos, John, "Shakespeare's Transformation of Plautus," Comparative Drama 1, No. 4 (Winter 1967-68): 239-53.
Examines the ways in which Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors both diverges from and mirrors its inspiration, Plautus's Menaechmus.

Baker, Susan, "Status and Space in The Comedy of Errors," Shakespeare Bulletin 8, No. 2 (Spring 1990): 6-8.
Proposes that in The Comedy of Errors, the characters frequently "encounter sites and situations where the status they're prepared to play is not allowed to them," and these "spatial transgressions, dislocations, and displacements" (instances of mistaken identity) are more than mere confusion.

Barton, Anne, "The Comedy of Errors," In The Riverside Shakespeare edited by J. J. M. Tobin, Herschel Baker, and G. Blakemore Evans, pp. 79-82. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997.
Offers an overview of The Comedy of Errors by contrasting it with Plautus's Menaechmus, highlighting Shakespeare's modifications and additions. Barton notes that Shakespeare delves deeper into the character of the Syracusan Antipholus (the traveling brother), unlike Plautus, who focused more on the native brother.

Berry, Ralph, "And here we wander in illusions," In Shakespeare's Comedies: Explorations in Form, pp. 24-39. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972.
Provides an overview of The Comedy of Errors, suggesting that the play should be seen "as an anticipation of what Shakespeare is to write." Berry examines the play’s classification as both farce and comedy, the identity issues among the characters, and the importance of the gold chain.

Bevington, David, ed., "Introduction," In The Comedy of Errors, pp. xvii-xxiii. New York: Bantam Books, 1988.
Offers a concise overview of The Comedy of Errors, describing it as a "superb illustration of Shakespeare's apprenticeship in comedy."

Brooks, Charles, "Shakespeare's Romantic Shrews," Shakespeare Quarterly XI, No. 3 (Summer 1960): 351-56.
Analyzes the portrayal of Adriana in The Comedy of Errors and Kate in The Taming of the Shrew as shrewish characters. Brooks also uses Adriana and Kate to explore themes of love, courtship, and marriage in Shakespeare's romantic comedies.

Bullough, Geoffrey, ed., "Introduction," In Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare, pp. 3-11. New York: Columbia University Press, 1957.
Provides brief yet detailed commentary on the sources of The Comedy of Errors.

Charney, Maurice, "The Comedy of Errors," In All of Shakespeare, pp. 3-10. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
Offers an overview of The Comedy of Errors, including a discussion on the classical style of verse used in the play.

Crewe, Jonathan V., "God or The Good Physician: The Rational Playwright in The Comedy of Errors," Genre 15, Nos. 1-2 (Spring/Summer 1982): 203-23.
Explores the "playwright" of The Comedy of Errors as an all-powerful, all-knowing deity versus a healing physician.

Qitts, John P., "The Comedy of Errors," In The Shattered Glass: A Dramatic Pattern in Shakespeare's Early Plays, pp. 13-21. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1968.
Discusses how the characters in The Comedy of Errors fail to see "beyond the mirror of identical twins, to see any further than outward semblances."

Elliott, G. R., "Weirdness in The Comedy of Errors," University of Toronto Quarterly IX, No. 1 (October 1939): 95-106.
Analyzes how The Comedy of Errors exemplifies "structural excellence" and is described as a "beautifully carved gem" through its romantic and comedic "weird light."

Felheim, Marvin, and Philip Traci, "The Comedy of Errors," In Realism in Shakespeare's Romantic Comedies: "Oh Heavenly Mingle," pp. 13-28. Lanham, MD. University Press of America, 1980.
Examines realism in The Comedy of Errors. The authors highlight the significance of "middle-class objects" in the play, such as the rope, gold chain, and ring, and discuss the central themes of order, balance, and time.

Foakes, K A., ed., "Introduction," In The Comedy of Errors, pp. xi-lv. London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1962.
Provides a three-part discussion of the play, including a technical introduction (arguments and theories about the play's text, date, sources, and staging), a critical introduction (focusing on the challenge of classifying the play's genre), and a stage history.

Freedman, Barbara, "Errors in Comedy: A Psychoanalytic Theory of Farce," In Shakespearean Comedy, edited by Maurice Charney, pp. 233-43. New York: New York Literary Forum, 1980.
Advocates for a "re-evaluation of Shakespearean farce in light of a psychoanalytic theory of the dynamics of meaning in farce." Freedman also explores various definitions of farce and presents her own interpretation.

———, "Reading Errantly: Misrecognition and the Uncanny in The Comedy of Errors," In Staging the Gaze: Postmodernism Psychoanalysis, and Shakespearean Comedy, pp. 78-113. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991.
Investigates issues such as the text and reader's awareness in The Comedy of Errors, how the "reading process is implicated in the principles of identity and repression," and why the instances of mistaken identity in the play are less crucial than the "misrecognitions ... that occur because of the play of character itself."

French, Marilyn, "Marriage: The Comedy of Errors," In Shakespeare's Division of Experience, pp. 77-81. New York: Summit Books, 1981.
Briefly examines the feminine and masculine "principles" in The Comedy of Errors and argues that Shakespeare intentionally placed the marriage relationship at the forefront of the play, asserting that the play "is devoted to the ends of the in-law feminine principle."

Garton, Charles, "Centaurs, the Sea, and The Comedy of Errors," Arethusa 12, No. 2 (Fall 1979): 233-54.
Explores Shakespeare's creation of the name "Antipholus" for the twin sons of Aegeon, contending that this name "becomes nodal to the patterning of the play as a whole, to its complex of themes and images, to its symbolism and its mythopoeic qualities."

Girard, Rene, "Comedies of Errors: Plautus—Shakespeare—Moliere," In American Criticism in the Post-structuralist Age, edited by Ira Konigsberg, pp. 66-86. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1981.
Discusses the use of identical twins in several of Shakespeare's plays, including The Comedy of Errors, as well as in the works of Plautus and Moliere. Girard observes that in The Comedy of Errors, the twins "constitute a source of misunderstanding structurally identical with the ones caused by mimetic desire and endowed with the same dramatic possibilities."

Greenblatt, Stephen, "The Comedy of Errors," In The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, pp. 683-89. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.
Offers a concise summary of The Comedy of Errors. It includes comparisons between Shakespeare's play and Plautus's Menaechmu, and discusses themes of identity loss and recovery in the play.

Hamilton, A. C., "The Early Comedies: The Comedy of Errors," In The Early Shakespeare, pp. 90-108. San Marino, CA: The Huntington Library, 1967.
Contends that in The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare prioritizes plot above all else, stating that "the plot expresses his idea of comedy and becomes the soul" of the play.

Hasler, Jorg, "The Comedy of Errors," In Shakespeare's Theatrical Notation: The Comedies, pp. 132-34. Bern: A. Francke AG Verlag, 1974.
Provides a brief analysis of the final exit in The Comedy of Errors.

Hennings, Thomas P., "The Anglican Doctrine of the Affectionate Marriage in The Comedy of Errors," Modern Language Quarterly 47, No. 2 (June 1986): 91-107.
Posits that the Anglican doctrine of affectionate marriage sets the "normative pattern of the marital roles" in The Comedy of Errors.

Huston, J. Dennis, "Playing with Discontinuity: Mistakings and Mistimings in The Comedy of Errors," In Shakespeare's Comedies of Play, pp. 14-34. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981.
Explores how Shakespeare "builds a plot of mistaking, self-consciously contrived," in The Comedy of Errors. This is achieved through elements like the misleading start of the play, which initially seems to be a tragedy or romance rather than a "comedy," and through the characters of Aegeon and the Duke of Ephesus.

Jardine, Lisa, "'As boys and women are for the most part cattle of this colour': Female Roles and Elizabethan Eroticism," In Still Harping on Daughters: Women and Drama in the Age of Shakespeare, pp. 44-46. Sussex, Eng.: The Harvester Press, 1983.
Briefly examines how The Comedy of Errors "wittily ironises the consequences of the wife's maximised obligations and minimal redress."

Lanier, Douglas, "'Stigmatical in Making': The Material Character of The Comedy of Errors," English Literary Renaissance 23, No. 1 (Winter 1993): 81-112.
Discusses the concept of self-presentation related to social rank and class in Elizabethan England. It looks at how The Comedy of Errors "by staging disruptions of identity-effects, is preoccupied with interrogating the curious material logic of Renaissance self-presentation," and how studying the "materiality of Shakespearean character" can challenge the "traditional notion of Shakespeare's artistic 'development'" and reevaluate the early comedies alongside his other works.

Levin, Harry, "Two Comedies of Errors," In Refractions: Essays in Comparative Literature, pp. 128-50. New York: Oxford University Press, 1966.
Compares Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors with Plautus's Menaechmu.

Macdonald, Ronald R., "The Comedy of Errors: After So Long Grief, Such Nativity," In William Shakespeare: The Comedies, pp. 1-13. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992.
This work provides an overview of The Comedy of Errors, discussing its origins and farcical elements. It examines Shakespeare's use of "doubling" as "part of a larger meditation on the problem of identity, an extreme instance of the play of likeness and difference through which a workable sense of self is finally attained." The analysis also touches on how the play reflects elements of what Freud identified as an oedipal struggle.

Maguire, Laurie, "The Girls from Ephesus," In The Comedy of Errors: Critical Essays, pp. 355-91.
Maguire highlights the numerous polarities and doublings in the play, including characters, events, the nature of Ephesus, marriage, and the master-servant relationship. Throughout these discussions, Maguire also comments on various productions of the play.

Miola, Robert S., "The Play and the Critics," In The Comedy of Errors: Critical Essays, pp. 3-38.
Miola offers an introduction to The Comedy of Errors, exploring the play's sources and different critical perspectives on its genre, characterization, and language. The essay includes feminist criticism and the New Historicist approach to interpreting the play, as well as stage and television adaptations of the play globally.

Muir, Kenneth, "The Comedy of Errors," In Shakespeare's Comic Sequence, pp. 15-22. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1979.
Muir provides a concise overview of The Comedy of Errors, noting that "Shakespeare was feeling his way for an appropriate form and his varying success is one sign of his immaturity," and highlighting the weak characterizations as another indication of this.

O'Brien, Robert Viking, "The Madness of Syracusan Antipholus," Early Modern Literary Studies 2.1 (1996): 3.1-26.
O'Brien examines the theme of madness in The Comedy of Errors, with a particular focus on the character of Antipholus of Syracuse and the Elizabethan conceptions of madness.

Parker, Patricia, "Elder and Younger: The Opening Scene of The Comedy of Errors," Shakespeare Quarterly 34, No. 3 (Autumn 1983): 325-27.
Parker argues that lines 78-85 of The Comedy of Errors have been misinterpreted by previous critics, who concluded that Shakespeare introduced an inconsistency in Aegeon's account of the shipwreck that separated his family.

Parrott, Thomas Marc, "Apprentice Work The Comedy of Errors," In Shakespearean Comedy, pp. 100-108. New York: Oxford University Press, 1949.
Parrott discusses the differences between Plautus's Menaechmi and Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors. He notes that Shakespeare's version features two pairs of twins instead of one, increasing the confusion over mistaken identity. Additionally, the play ends with a family reunion, and the character of Adriana is "firmly conceived and realistically developed."

Pettet, E. C., "Shakespeare's 'Romantic' Comedies," In Shakespeare and the Romantic Tradition, pp. 67-100. Brooklyn, NY: Haskell House Publishers, Ltd., 1976.
Groups The Comedy of Errors with The Taming of the Shrew and The Merry Wives of Windsor—the "oddities" of Shakespeare's romantic comedies—arguing that it is "clearly distinguished from the majority of Shakespeare's comedies, if not their antithesis as a type of drama." Pettet also discusses The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and the "main body" of Shakespeare's comedies, including Romeo and Juliet and The Merchant of Venice.

Salgado, Gamini, "'Time's Deformed Hand': Sequence, Consequence, and Inconsequence in The Comedy of Errors," In Shakespeare Survey, Volume 25, edited by Kenneth Muir, pp. 81-91. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972.
Explores the significance of time's progression (public and private time, clock-time, dream-time) in The Comedy of Errors.

Shaw, Catherine M., "The Conscious Art of The Comedy of Errors." In Shakespearean Comedy, edited by Maurice Charney, pp. 17-28. New York: New York Literary Forum, 1980.
Asserts that The Comedy of Errors is an "Elizabethan hybrid," drawing from Plautus and Terence, the English stage, and Renaissance thought, with its "multi-leveling of character and narrative tone and superimposition of various layers of dramatic representation on the Latin base."

Slights, Camille Wells, "Time's Debt to Season: The Comedy of Errors, IV.ii.58," English Language Notes XXIV, No. 1 (September 1986): 22-25.
Analyzes a single line from The Comedy of Errors, focusing on the interpretation of the word "season."

Smidt, Kristian, "Comedy of Errors?" In Unconformities in Shakespeare's Early Comedies, pp. 26-38. London: Macmillan, 1986.
Identifies "signs of disturbance" in The Comedy of Errors, suggesting that the play might have been revised from an earlier, longer version.

Thompson, Ann, "'Errors' and 'Labors': Feminism and Early Shakespearean Comedy," In Shakespeare's Sweet Thunder: Essays on the Early Comedies, edited by Michael J. Collins, pp. 90-101. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1997.
Argues that feminist critics should pay more attention to The Comedy of Errors and Love's Labor's Lost. Thompson reviews feminist literary criticism of these plays, particularly regarding their primary female characters, and calls for a feminist production of the play.

Vaughn, Jack A., "The Comedy of Errors" In Shakespeare's Comedies, pp. 12-21. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1980.
Provides an overview of The Comedy of Errors. Vaughn discusses the play's classification as a farce and contrasts Shakespeare's version with Plautus's Menaechmi, arguing that Adriana is a sympathetic, multi-dimensional character, rather than a shrew.

Von Rosador, K. Tetzeli, "Plotting the Early Comedies: The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona," Shakespeare Survey 37 (1984): 13-22. Explores how the plot of The Comedy of Errors revolves around "repeated evasion or postponement of danger," with the "calm" following the "turbulence" often resulting from a beating of one of the Dromios. Von Rosador also delves into how Shakespeare sidesteps formulaic plotting. The discussion then moves to the plots of Love's Labour's Lost and The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Wells, Stanley, "Comedies of Verona, Padua, Ephesus, France and Athens," In Shakespeare: A Life in Drama, pp. 52-57. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995.
Offers a concise overview of The Comedy of Errors, addressing its staging, genre classification, and treatment of identity.

Williams, Gwyn, "The Comedy of Errors Rescued from Tragedy," A Review of English Literature 5, No. 4 (October 1964): 63-71.
Contends that The Comedy of Errors might have been classified as a tragedy if not for the inclusion of the second pair of twins, the Dromios. These twins "save the play as a comedy," with the farcical elements of the play largely centered around them.