The Comedy of Errors

George Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments—all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. The plays in the New Kittredge Shakespeare series retain the original Kittredge notes and introductions, changed or augmented only when some modernization seems necessary. These new editions also include introductory essays by contemporary editors, notes on the plays as they have been performed on stage and film, and additional student materials.

These plays are being made available by Focus with the permission of the Kittredge heirs.

Reviews:

"Laury Magnus's edition of The Comedy of Errors is a treasure—it gives us all the footnotes Kittredge never himself wrote along with a superb collection of production photographs of a wide variety of performances and extended production notes. The introduction is comprehensive in establishing the various ideas and dimensions of a play mistakenly thought to be the simple Roman farce of a young playwright. And teachers will find the extended list of assignments as suggestively fruitful as students reading the play for the first time. This combination is a real winner."
     —Arthur F. Kinney, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

About the Author:

Laury Magnus is Professor of Humanities at the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York. Her books include a study of poetic repetition in early twentieth-century British and American poetry and a co-translation and introduction to Ivan Goncharov's nineteenth-century Russian novel, The Precipice. Her articles have appeared in The Wallace Stevens Journal, Assays, Language and Style, and, on Shakespeare, in Literature/Film Quarterly, Connotations, and College Literature. She is also a frequent contributor to The Shakespeare Newsletter and an Associate Member of the Columbia Shakespeare Seminar.