THE AMERICAN SHAKESPEARE CENTER
STUDY GUIDE
The Comedy of Errors
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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55
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Shakespeare Timeline
Shakespeare's Staging Conditions (and how well he used them)
Playgoer's Guide
Stuff That Happens in the Play
Who's Who
Character Connections
Discovery Space Scavenger Hunt
Actor's Choice
The Basics: Getting Them on Their Feet
The Basics: Iambic Bodies
The Basics: Elizabethan Classroom
Dr. Ralph's ShakesFear Activity
Perspectives: Sources and Adaptations (scene considered: 1.2)
Using Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, and Early Modern Staging to Teach the Classics
Guide for Teachers
Rhetoric and Figures of Speech (scene considered: 2.1)
Using The Comedy of Errors to Teach Curriculum Plays
Guide for Teachers
Staging Challenges: Within and Without (scene considered: 3.1)
Guide for Teachers
Textual Variants (scene considered: 4.4)
Perspectives: Marriage (scenes considered: 2.1, 2.2, 3.2, 5.1)
Using The Comedy of Errors to Teach Curriculum Plays
Guide for Teachers
Film in the Classroom
Production Choices
SOL Guidelines
Handout #1
Handout #2
Handout #3
Handout #4
Handout #5
Handout #6
Handout #7
Handout #8
Handout #9
Handout #10
Handout #11
Handout #12
Handout #13
Handout #14
CHARACTER CONNECTIONS
WHO’S WHO
When directors cast actors for a Shakespeare play, the only information they have is the text that Shakespeare wrote.
Unlike in many modern shows, the dramatis personae of a Shakespearean play does not include the ages of characters,
their relationships to each other, or descriptions of what they look like. All of that information must come from within the
play itself. What the characters say about themselves and what other characters say about them define what they look like,
where they come from, and how they behave. What information can you get from the character quotations below?
Antipholus of Syracuse – "I to the world am like a drop of water that in the ocean seeks another drop, who,
falling there to find his fellow forth, unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself: So I, to find a mother and a
brother, in quest of them, unhappy, lose myself." (Antipholus of Syracuse, 1.2)
Dromio of Syracuse – "A trusty villain, sir, that very oft, when I am dull with care and melancholy, lightens
my humour with his merry jests." (Antipholus of Syracuse, 1.2)
Antipholus of Ephesus – "Of very reverend reputation, sir, of credit infinite, highly beloved, second to none
that lives here in the city" (Angelo, 5.1)
Dromio of Ephesus – "I am an ass, indeed; you may prove it by my long ears. I have served him from the hour
of my nativity to this instant, and have nothing at his hands for my service but blows." (Dromio of Ephesus,
4.4)
Adriana – "Since that my beauty cannot please his eye, I'll weep what's left away, and weeping die." (Adriana,
2.1)
PERSPECTIVES
Sources and Adaptations
There may be nothing new under the sun, but that doesn't seem to have troubled William Shakespeare in the slightest. A
common complaint leveled against Shakespeare is the lack of originality in his plots, as very few of his plays have no direct
antecedent either in poetry, in earlier plays, in prose fiction, or in history. But should Shakespeare's plot thievery trouble us?
The idea of borrowing from literary predecessors was commonplace in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth century, and
Shakespeare was far from the only playwright giving a new shine to old tales. Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe took
many of their plots from the classics and from stories popular on the European continent. Shakespeare's audience placed little
value on the construction of a new story; they cared more about hearing a familiar old story told in a new and exciting way,
with fresh new words.
Adaptation of this sort goes on today as well, and modern audiences revisit old plots and familiar characters as cheerfully as
the audiences at the Blackfriars and the Globe did. Today, books, comic books, and Broadway musicals become movies, and
recently the trend has started to move the other direction as well, as Broadway adapts movies such as Legally Blonde, Shrek,
and Monty Python and the Holy Grail for the stage. Hollywood has also embraced the remake; as of mid-2010, over 75
movies either currently in theatres or in production are remakes of previous movies. We're still reinventing the classics. The
last decade has seen movies like 300, Robin Hood, King Arthur, Beowulf, and Gladiator, and TV shows such as Rome, all of
which come from ancient or medieval sources, some of those the same sources Shakespeare himself used as inspiration for his
plays. During his own lifetime, Shakespeare’s plays inspired others, and in the nearly 400 years since his death, his plays have
been the source material for dozens of operas and musicals and for more than 420 movie adaptations. As all of Shakespeare’s
works are public domain, production companies can avoid the copyright entanglements that come with trying to adapt more
modern works.
In this activity, your students will examine the main source material for The Comedy of Errors and will use it as the basis for a
discussion on adaptation and the evolution of stories through different forms and eras. The Comedy of Errors was taken from
a farce by the Roman author Plautus, Menaechmi, or, The Twin Brothers; though the overall plot is nearly identical and
though some of Shakespeare's scenes seem lifted directly out of Menaechmi, Shakespeare did make a few critical changes,
most notably the addition of a second set of twins: the Dromios. In this activity, your students will explore the process of
adaptation and the effect of Shakespeare’s changes to his source material on The Comedy of Errors.
Activity

Set up your classroom according to the Elizabethan Classroom guidelines, found on page 19 of this study
guide. This will allow your students who are not participating as actors to serve as the audience. Remind
your non-acting students that the audience members are still a part of the play – at any moment, an actor may
pick them out to play with them.

Examine the following scene from Menaechmi and its equivalent in The Comedy of Errors (Handouts #1 and #2).
o
For Latin teachers: Handout #1B is Plautus’s original Latin. You may wish to have students translate the
scene, or segments of it, themselves and then compare their translations to the 1912 translation by Henry
Riley provided on Handout #1.

You will need 3 actors for the Menaechmi scene: Menaechmus Sosicles (the foreign twin, analogous to Antipholus of
Syracuse), Messenio (his servant), and Cylindrus (cook to Menaechmus Epidamnus, the other twin).

You will need 4 actors for the Comedy of Errors scene: First Merchant, Antipholus of Syracuse, Dromio of Syracuse,
and Dromio of Ephesus.

Have your students first perform the scene from Menaechmi, then the scene from The Comedy of Errors.

Discuss the similarities and differences between the scenes.
o
What elements did Shakespeare lift straight out of Menaechmi?
RHETORIC AND FIGURES OF SPEECH
Rhetoric [ret-er-ik], n. 1. The art or science of all specialized literary uses of
language in prose or verse, including the figures of speech. 2. The study of the
effective use of language. 3. The ability to use language effectively.
Through the use of rhetorical devices (or figures of speech), Shakespeare provides a map to help an actor figure out
how to play a character and to communicate the story of the play to the audience. These devices may provide clues
to meaning, may indicate how a character's mind works, or may audibly point the audience towards important
concepts in a character's speech. Rhetoric is one of many tools an actor can use to discover playable moments in a
speech or in dialogue. For example, a character who uses ellipsis, leaving out part of a sentence to force the other
characters or audience members to complete it in their minds, might be forging a bond, or he might simply be in a
hurry.
In The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare employs stichomythia (sti'-ko-myth'-ee-a), the rapid alteration of single lines
or partial lines between characters. Stichomythia is a figure of argument, as characters challenge each others' ideas
and then respond to those challenges. Often, the device turns into a game of one-up-manship. This device is
characteristic of Shakespeare's early comedies, as it also appears frequently in Two Gentlemen of Verona and The
Taming of the Shrew, though he also uses it for dramatic effect in Richard III. In The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare
compounds the rapid alteration by having the characters share rhyming couplets, a technique which amplifies the
feeling of challenge-and-response.
In this activity, your students will explore the rhythm and energy created by stichomythia, and they will examine
how its use can inform how actors play a scene.
Activity
 Set up your classroom according to the Elizabethan Classroom guidelines, found on page 19 of this study
guide. This will allow your students who are not participating as actors to serve as the audience. Remind
your non-acting students that the audience members are still a part of the play – at any moment, an actor may
pick them out to play with them.
 Choose two students to read, one as Adriana and one as Luciana. Give Adriana Handout #5 and Luciana
Handout #6.
o Take a moment to explain how cue scripts work. When Shakespeare wrote The Comedy of Errors,
his actors might never have seen a full script; they would receive only their own parts, with the few
words preceding their own lines to act as a cue. How might that change an actor's view of the play?
What difficulties would working from a cue script present?
 Have your students read the scene once through to get the meaning and a sense of the interplay.
o Ask your students how they felt reading from a cue script. Did the monologues sneak up on either of
your student actors? Was it hard to wait for the cue line after the rapid banter?
o Talk about how the rhymes and the rhetorical device of stichomythia might have been a way of
giving emotional cues to the actor.
 If it's frustrating to have to listen to a monologue when you were in the middle of a
conversation, then play that frustration.
 If Adriana finds it annoying that Luciana just has to respond with criticism when Adriana is
angling for sympathy, how can an actor convey that to the audience?
 Does Luciana feel satisfied with herself every time she completes the rhyme?
 Next, have your students read scene again. This time they should deliver the bantering rhyming couplets as
quickly as possible (while still remaining intelligible). It's particularly important that they answer each other
rapidly, letting the lines follow on top of each other. Doing the scene this way should give your students a
better feel for the energy and rhythm created by the use of stichomythia.
What's this? The boxes along the side of the page will help you think like
a director. As your students perform, stop them periodically to make
suggestions, to ask them questions, or to point out a significant moment. Each
marker is related to staging conditions required by the scene such as: embedded
stage directions, setting the scene, or playing darkness.
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
ADRIANA
Neither my husband nor the slave return'd,
That in such haste I sent to seek his master!
Sure, Luciana, it is two o'clock.
LUCIANA
Perhaps some merchant hath invited him,
And from the mart he's somewhere gone to dinner. (5)
Good sister, let us dine and never fret:
A man is master of his liberty:
Time is their master, and, when they see time,
They'll go or come: if so, be patient, sister.
ADRIANA
Why should their liberty than ours be more?
The late address to Luciana could indicate that Adriana is
sharing her frustration with the audience in the first two lines. Have
your student try taking these lines directly to an audience member.
(10)
Why does Luciana begin rhyming? The conversation up till
now, though in blank verse, has neither rhymed nor had the quick
pace of stichomythia. Why the change? How should Adriana react?
LUCIANA
Because their business still lies out o' door.
ADRIANA
Look, when I serve him so, he takes it ill.
Make sure that your student actor is “choosing” to rhyme,
making it clear that she is doing it on purpose.
LUCIANA
O, know he is the bridle of your will.
ADRIANA
There's none but asses will be bridled so.
LUCIANA
Why, headstrong liberty is lash'd with woe.
There's nothing situate under heaven's eye
But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky:
The beasts, the fishes, and the winged fowls,
Are their males' subjects and at their controls:
Men, more divine, the masters of all these,
Lords of the wide world and wild watery seas,
Indued with intellectual sense and souls,
Of more preeminence than fish and fowls,
Are masters to their females, and their lords:
Then let your will attend on their accords.
Might Adriana have been starting to say something else
before Luciana barrels into her monologue? Have Adriana try to
interrupt her.
(15)
(20)
(25)
The rhymes on "controls" and "souls" indicates that this
probably would have been pronounced closer to "foals" than the
way we currently pronounce "fowls"
Ask your students to consider how Luciana's tone differs from
Adriana's. Who sounds more personal? If Adriana is speaking from
experience, where is Luciana getting her sureties from?
ADRIANA
This servitude makes you to keep unwed.
How does Adriana react to Luciana’s continual rhyming?
LUCIANA
Not this, but troubles of the marriage-bed.
ADRIANA
But, were you wedded, you would bear some sway.
The first stress in this line falls on "I" – does this indicate
that Luciana is placing herself in opposition to Adriana?
LUCIANA
Ere I learn love, I'll practise to obey.
ADRIANA
How if your husband start some other where?
Note that this line is the first indication Shakespeare gives the
audience that Adriana is worried that her husband is unfaithful.
(30)
Textual Variants
The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare's plays that was not printed before the 1623 Folio of his complete works produced
by John Heminges and Henry Condell. Even with only the Folio on which to base later editions, however, editors over the years
have taken it upon themselves to make changes to the text of the play. One notable example in The Comedy of Errors is in 4.4,
when Antipholus of Ephesus attacks his wife and is bound and arrested. The Folio version of the scene looks like this:
Antipholus threatens Adriana; Enter three or four, and offer to bind him: He strives; and then Adriana cries out.
Compare the Folio direction to those found in these two modern editions of the play:
The Arden Shakespeare (revised edition, 2001)
The Oxford Shakespeare (2002 edition)
ANTIPHOLUS E.
Dissembling harlot, thou art false in all,
And art confederate with a damned pack
To make a loathsome abject scorn of me;
But with these nails I'll pluck out these false eyes
That would behold in me this shameful sport.
ANTIPHOLUS E.
Dissembling harlot, thou art false in all,
And art confederate with a damned pack
To make a loathsome abject scorn of me;
But with these nails I'll pluck out these false eyes
That would behold in me this shameful sport.
[He tries to attack Adriana]
ADRIANA
O bind him, bind him, let him not come near me.
ADRIANA
O bind him, bind him, let him not come near me.
[Enter three or four and offer to bind him; he strives.]
Enter three or four and offer to bind him. He strives.
PINCH
More company; the fiend is strong within him.
PINCH
More company; the fiend is strong within him.
Both of these editions move the binding to after Adriana's line, and the Oxford edition makes explicit a stage direction that is
only embedded and implied in the Folio, that Antipholus attempts to attack his wife. A note in the Oxford edition calls the
original Folio direction "imprecise" and suggests that it was taken from "authorial copy, not yet made concrete in the theatre."
In the following activity, your students will explore the effects of these editorial decisions on the performance of the scene.
STAGING THE PAGE
 Set up your classroom according to the Elizabethan Classroom guidelines, found on page 18 of this study guide. This
will allow your students who are not participating as actors to serve as the audience. Remind your non-acting students
that the audience members are still a part of the play – at any moment, an actor may pick them out to play with them.
 For the first version, run the scene precisely as it appears in the Folio. The officers should enter and begin to bind
Antipholus before there is any real threat to Adriana. Where, then, does Adriana's outcry come from? Is it simply a
ridiculous overreaction to his words? You may want to adjust your blocking for this version and try it a couple of
different ways. How is it different if Antipholus is right next to Adriana as opposed to across the stage from her? Which
blocking makes it easier for the officers to intervene as directed?
STUDENT HANDOUT #12
PERSPECTIVES ON MARRIAGE
Genesis 2:23-24
"And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of
my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken
out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his
mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one
flesh."
Michel de Montaigne: "On Friendship" (1580)
"As for marriage, not only is it a bargain to which only the
entrance is free… but it is a bargain commonly made for
other ends. There occur in it innumerable extraneous
complications which have to be unraveled, and are enough to
break the thread and disturb the course of lively affection"
Francis Bacon: Essays (1597)
Ephesians 5:22-28
"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto
the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as
Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the
body. Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so let the
wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands,
love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and
gave himself for it … So ought men to love their wives as
their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself."
Erasmus: The Institution of Marriage: "Maintaining a
Harmonious Relationship" (1526)
"Thus the girl needs to be told by her parents to be obliging
and compliant towards her husband and, if he should upset
her, to give him the benefit of the doubt, or at least put up
with it. She must not rush headlong into recrimination and
arguments, nor flounce out of the house: in time, when life
together has bred intimacy between them, it will ensure that
things that upset her at first will now amuse her, and that
what once seemed intolerable will prove very easy to bear."
"However, although there must be mutual respect, both
nature and scriptural authority lay down that the wife should
obey her husband rather than the opposite. Paul recommends
love and gentleness to husbands: 'You men,' he says, 'love
your wives, and do not be harsh with them. But what does he
prescribe for the women? Obedience and submissiveness."
Van Meteren: "The Paradise of Married Women" (1575)
"Wives in England are entirely in the power of their
husbands, their lives only excepted… yet they are not kept so
strictly as they are in Spain or elsewhere. Nor are they shut
up, but they have the free management of the house or
housekeeping… They go to market to buy what they like best
to eat. They are well dressed, fond of taking it easy, and
commonly leave the care of household matters and drudgery
to their servants…. All the rest of their time they employ in
walking or riding, in playing at cards or otherwise, in visiting
their friends and keeping company, conversing with their
equals (whom they term, gossips) and their neighbors, and
making marry with them at childbirths, christenings,
churchings and funerals."
"There was never proud man thought so absurdly well of
himself as the lover doth of the person loved; and therefore it
was well said, That it is impossible to love and be wise. …
He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to
fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either
of virtue or mischief. Certainly, the best works, and of
greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from unmarried
or childless men. Which both in affection and means have
married and endowed the public."
Rachel Speght: "The Worthiness of Women" (1617)
"…for man was created of the dust of the earth, but woman
was made of a part of man, after that he was a living soul; yet
was she not produced from Adam's foot, to be his too low
inferior, nor from his head, to be his superior, but from his
side, near his heart, to be his equal; that where he is Lord, she
may be Lady."
'Ester Sowernam': "The Weakness of Men" (1617)
"In no one thing men do acknowledge a more excellent
perfection in women than in the estimate of offences which a
woman doth commit: the worthiness of the person doth make
the sin more markable. What a hateful thing it is to see a
woman overcome with drink, when as in a man it is noted for
a sign of good fellowship. And whosoever doth observe it,
for one woman which doth make a custom of drunkenness
you shall find a hundred men. It is abhorred in women, and
therefore they avoid it; it is laughed at and made but as a jest
among men, and therefore so many practice it. Likewise if a
man abuse a maid and get her with child, no matter is made
of it but as a trick of youth; but it is made so heinous an
offence in the maid, that she is disparaged and utterly undone
by it. So in all offences, those which men commit are made
light and as nothing, slighted over; but those which women
do commit, those are made grievous and shameful."
FURTHER EXPLORATION – USING THE COMEDY OF ERRORS TO TEACH CURRICULUM PLAYS
You may wish to have your students compare the views on marriage in The Comedy of Errors with views presented in others of
Shakespeare's plays. (See excerpts on Handout #14).
For each of these, you will want to:
o Have students run the scenes on their feet.
o Discuss different choices an actor can make with the text.
o Do you want to play the scene or monologue seriously or jokingly?
o How emotionally invested is each character in what he or she is saying?
o What changes in delivery can your student-actors make to alter the audience’s perception of a character? Consider
elements such as physical posture and motion, vocal intonation, or the emphasis placed on certain words.
o All of the female roles would initially have been played by younger boy actors. How does this change the dynamic of the
scenes?
o Stage the scenes with female students playing the female roles, and then have male students play the female roles.
What changes are there?
o Because Shakespeare’s company acted in repertory, the same boys would be playing multiple roles in different
plays during any given time period. How does it affect the audience’s perception if the same boy who plays
Adriana plays Portia, or if your Luciana is also your Desdemona?
Suggestions for Comparison:




The Taming of the Shrew (5.2.65-190 – betting on wives and Kate's final speech)
o What expectations do the three new husbands have of their wives?
o How do those expectations relate to the passages on Handout #12?
o How do Luciana’s and Adriana’s ideas on marriage compare to the reactions of the three women in The Taming of
the Shrew?
o See our study guide for The Taming of the Shrew for ideas on how to work through Kate’s final speech.
Othello (4.3.59-104 – Desdemona and Emilia discussing infidelity)
o How are the power dynamics different in this scene, between two married women, than they are in the scenes
between married Adriana and unmarried Luciana?
 Emilia, though a gentlewoman, is of inferior status to her lady Desdemona; similarly, Luciana is the
younger sister and unmarried, and thus of lower status than Adriana. In each of these scenes, how is it
significant that the situationally less powerful character is the one doling out advice? How do
Shakespeare’s words give power to these characters?
o Compare Emilia’s speech to Ester Sowernam’s passage on Handout #12.
o How does Emilia’s view on infidelity compare to Adriana’s?
Much Ado About Nothing (2.3.7-35 – Benedick on what he looks for in a wife)
o Compare Benedick’s view of marriage in his first monologue to Francis Bacon’s opinion on Handout #12.
o In the first monologue, what power does Benedick ascribe to women? What is it about the prospect of marriage
that scares him?
o What comparisons can you draw between Benedick’s vow never to marry and Luciana’s hesitancy to marry? (See
Handout #6).
o What language in Benedick’s post-gulling monologue directly relates to the language in his first monologue?
 How have his views on marriage been altered?
 How does he refute his own previous statements?
o Challenge your students to write a monologue for a reformed Bacon. How could his viewpoint turn around, and
how can he refute his own points
Julius Caesar (2.1.254-308 – Portia imploring Brutus to share his worries and his plans with her)
o What does Portia consider she is entitled to by her position as Brutus’s wife?
o What linguistic similarities are there between Portia’s appeal to Brutus and Adriana’s appeal to Antipholus?
 How does each woman call upon the idea of a married couple being one “self”?
o In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare does not always adhere strictly to Christian morals alone, embracing the pagan
concept of the noble suicide and of the belief in portents. How firmly grounded in Christian faith are the ideas on
marriage presented in this play?
 You may wish to examine Roman marriage rites and vows. A Roman bride recited the words “Quando tu
Gaius, ego Gaia,” meaning “When and where you are Gaius, then and there I am Gaia.” How does this
vow relate to the Biblical ideas on marriage (see Handout #12).
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Staging Challenges – Within and Without
The Comedy of Errors, 3.1
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
Ay, to a niggardly host, and more sparing guest:
But though my cates be mean, take them in good part;
Better cheer may you have, but not with better heart.
But, soft! my door is lock'd. Go bid them let us in.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
Maud, Bridget, Marian, Cicel, Gillian, Ginn!
What's this? The boxes along the side of the page will help
you think like a director. As your students perform, stop them
periodically to make suggestions, to ask them questions, or to point
out a significant moment. Each marker is related to staging
conditions required by the scene such as: embedded stage
directions, setting the scene, or playing darkness.
An embedded stage direction – Antipholus clearly tries the
door and finds it locked. Have your student try different ways of
playing this direction. How comical can you make it?
(5)
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Mome, malt-horse, capon, coxcomb, idiot, patch!
Either get thee from the door, or sit down at the hatch.
Dost thou conjure for wenches, that thou call'st
for such store,
When one is one too many? Go, get thee from the door.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
What patch is made our porter? My master stays in
the street.
(10)
Oddly, Shakespeare wrote much of this scene not in the usual
iambic pentameter of blank verse, but in iambic hexameter (6 feet)
or even heptameter (7 feet). A line in hexameter is called an
alexandrine, and though the form had once been common in
English drama, by the late 16th-century, it had fallen out of use.
Why do you think Shakespeare altered the verse for this scene?
What is the aural effect of the extra syllables? The Comedy of
Errors is one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, perhaps his earliest
comedy; what might this mean in relation to the unusual verse?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Let him walk from whence he came, lest he catch cold
on's feet.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
Who talks within there? ho, open the door!
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Right, sir; I'll tell you when, an you tell me wherefore.
Though Dromio S. cannot see Antipholus and Dromio E.,
they can clearly hear each other. How is it that they do not
recognize each other's voices? Does this have any effect on the
suspension of disbelief, or is it something the audience is not
likely to think about while watching the scene?
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
Wherefore? for my dinner: I have not dined to-day.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Nor to-day here you must not; come again when you (15)
may.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
What art thou that keepest me out from the house I owe?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
The porter for this time, sir, and my name is Dromio.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
O villain! thou hast stolen both mine office and my name.
The one ne'er got me credit, the other mickle blame.
If thou hadst been Dromio to-day in my place,
(20)
Thou wouldst have changed thy face for a name or thy
name for an ass.
Enter Luce
Is this line for the benefit of anyone on stage, or is it
better delivered to the audience? Have your student try it
both ways.