Gesta Grayorum: references to Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors at Gray’s Inn Revels 1594-95

Gesta Grayorum is the published account of entertainments performed at Gray’s Inn over the 1594–5 Christmas season, including a performance of The Comedy of Errors on December 28. Gray’s Inn is one of four London legal societies situated between the River Fleet (now Farringdon Road) and the royal palace of Westminster. (The other three “Inns of Court” are Inner Temple, Middle Temple, and Lincoln’s Inn.)

Though some Christmas entertainment was performed each year at every Inn, on rare occasions the younger gentlemen of Gray’s Inn elected a Christmas Lord whom they styled “the Prince of Purpoole” after the Inn’s historical site, the manor of Portpool. These extended revels and entertainments, some extempore, some scripted, ran from November 1 to February 2 and beyond.

The text of the Gesta Grayorum, probably written in 1595 but not published until 1688, reports (p. 22) that “A Comedy of Errors (like to Plautus his Menechmus) was played by the Players” in Gray’s Inn Hall on December 28, 1594, amid an evening of general confusion that led to the occasion being called the “Night of Errors.” Although the cause of the confusion is not entirely clear, the following day a mock trial was held, recording several comments about the performance. The professional performers, probably the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, including Shakespeare, are denigrated as having been “foisted” on the members of Gray’s Inn, and are characterized as “a Company of base and common Fellows, to make up our Disorders with a Play of Errors and Confusions” (p. 23). This belittling of the players sounds like mere snobbery from the young “gentlemen” of Gray’s Inn, or an attempt to shift blame from employers to employees after the night’s entertainment ended up overcrowding the hall.

The Audited Account of the Exchequer for 1594-5 records a performance of an unnamed play at Greenwich by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, Shakespeare’s company, also on Innocents Day, December 28, 1594, and a performance in the same venue on the very same day by the Lord Admiral’s Men, Edward Alleyn’s Company. A possible explanation is that the Lord Chamberlain’s players performed a version of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors at Greenwich in the afternoon, and then again at Gray’s Inn in the evening, while the Lord Admiral’s players performed a different play at Greenwich the same evening. Another possible explanation is that at least one of the entries in the Exchequer account contains a dating error.

The Gesta Grayorum titles of “A Comedy of Errors” or “Play of Errors and Confusions” may be compared to other titles given to Shakespeare’s play over the years. In his 1598 Palladis Tamia list of Shakespeare plays (p. 282), Francis Meres calls it “his Errors,” while the Revels Book of 1604-5 calls it “The plaie of Errors.” Not until the Shakespeare First Folio of 1623 was it called “The Comedy of Errours” (in the table of contents) or “The Comedie of Errors” (in the textual title and running head, under Comedies, pp. 85-100). The further characterization of the play in Gesta Grayorum as being “like to Plautus his Menechmus” must remove virtually all doubt that it was an early version of the Shakespeare play published in 1623, as scholars generally recognize this classical play as one of its sources.

Coincidentally, a decade after the reportedly botched performance at Gray’s Inn, the Revels Book of 1604-5 reports that “The plaie of Errors” was performed on Innocent’s Day, December 28, the exact same festival day as in 1594-5.