by the
young gentlemen students was unexpected, we can be sure it was not
made for this occasion. It seems obvious that whatever comedy was
specially designed by Shakespeare and his fellow actors for their
Christmas performances before the Queen at Greenwich, would be apt to
be chosen for a sudden repetition at Gray's Inn the same evening. And
of course for such an institution of scholarly gentlemen as Gray's
Inn, a farce based on Plautus would be likely to be thought
appropriate.

So Mrs. Charlotte Stopes argues, who brought into association these
facts and dates. She brings out also, another curious incident or two
concerning what we may take to be the earliest performances of "The
Comedie of Errors." One is that the mother of the Earl of
Southampton,--the young nobleman who was Shakespeare's patron and to
whom the Poet dedicated "Venus and Adonis" and "Lucrece,"--was then
acting officially for her late husband. Thus it fell to her care to
make up his accounts as Treasurer of the Chamber, and she it was who
wrote this particular notice of the acting of Shakespeare before Queen
Elizabeth. Others acting as Treasurer did not find it worth their
while to include the Actors' names in their accounts. This notice of
hers is the first and last to mention names in this way. Her son,
being a Gray's Inn man, would have been in a position to suggest the
substitution of Shakespeare's Play and as a friend of Shakespeare's
would desire to do so.

The other incident of biographical interest is that the Gray's Inn
students were much mortified by the uproar which caused the failure of
the program of their chief of Revels called "The Prince of Purpoole,"
and made it necessary for them to call in common players. The result
of their desire "to recover their lost honor with some graver
conceipt" was to give Jan. 3d, a learned Dialogue called "Divers Plots
and Devices." Bacon aided largely in this stately affair. In its
course six Councillors one after the other deliver speeches on
enrollment of Knights and Chivalry, the glory of War, the study of
Philosophy, etc. The scorn felt for Shakespeare's "Comedie" and the
contrast with this rival specimen of academic dramatics is
significant.

Out of the comparatively simple plot of Plautus, Shakespeare developed
an amusing complexity of situations. These appear upon studying the
progress of the story, Act by Act, as follows:

ACT I

THE ARRIVAL OF CERTAIN STRANGERS IN EPHESUS

What has