Mistaken identity
The topos of mistaken identity likewise shows up in the earliest dramas. Plautus,
a Roman playwright of the 2nd century BCE, was a master of the theme. For
instance, in his comedy Menaechmi he composes a tale of confusion and
deception involving twin brothers who were separated at a young age and
through a sequence of coincidences and a benevolent fate happily reunited as
grown-up men.
Plautus became something of a patron saint of comedy, his plays a source of
inspiration for many writers. Like Menaechmi, William Shakespeare’s Comedy
of Errors (1594, Figure 13) deals with twin brothers caught up in multiple
situations of mix-up about borrowed money, servants, and the wife of one of the
brothers. To boot Shakespeare supplements the brothers with a pair of servants
who are also twins. The concept of mistaken identity where twins unwittingly or
deliberately fool other characters is at the heart of the plot, accounting for a
succession of humorous situations.