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He that commends me to mine own content
Commends me to the thing I cannot get.
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. (1.2.33–40)
Upon arriving in Ephesus, Antipholus of Syracuse consults with the First Merchant about the plan for the day. As the First Merchant departs to go meet with local traders, he says they’ll rendezvous later in the day. Antipholus, meanwhile, says he’ll go lose himself for a while by wandering in the city. The First Merchant responds, “Sir, I commend you to your own content” (1.2.32), then he leaves. His use of the word “content” (i.e., satisfaction) spurs these lines from Antipholus, who, now alone, reflects on how unsatisfied he is in life. He likens himself to a single drop of water seeking out another drop somewhere in the vast ocean. The search for his missing mother and brother feels to him like an impossible task, and his seven years of failure “in quest of them” has left him “confound[ed],” “unhappy,” and deeply unsure of who he is.
How comes it now, my husband, O, how comes it
That thou art then estrangèd from thyself?
“Thyself” I call it, being strange to me,
That, undividable, incorporate,
Am better than thy dear self’s better part.
Ah, do not tear away thyself from me!
For know, my love, as easy mayst thou fall
A drop of water in the breaking gulf,
And take unmingled thence that drop again
Without addition or diminishing,
As take from me thyself and not me too. (2.2.130–40)
When Antipholus of Syracuse is summoned to “his” house for the midday meal “his” wife has prepared for him, he is understandably confused about what is going on. His confusion clearly shows when he arrives and faces a frustrated Adriana, who in these lines confronts him about his odd behavior. Antipholus has repeatedly insisted that he isn’t her husband, which confounds Adriana and leads her to ask, “how comes it / That thou art then estrangèd from thyself.” As her speech continues, she further questions what she means by “thyself”—a term that refers to a man who had previously seemed “undividable” and “incorporate.” Adriana’s speech is significant for the way it echoes Antipholus’s earlier speech about feeling existentially lost due to the fruitlessness of his search for his missing family members. She tries to comfort him by asserting that they make each other a complete and “unmingled” whole. Curiously, her image of “a drop of water in the breaking gulf” repeats his metaphor of being a drop of water searching for another drop in the ocean.
I see we still did meet each other’s man,
And I was ta’en for him, and he for me,
And thereupon these errors are arose. (5.1.399–401)
Antipholus of Syracuse makes this sober observation in the play’s final act, as the confusion from the day’s many misidentifications rapidly gets resolved. Thus, for the first time in the play, Antipholus sees things clearly. But the significance of these lines goes beyond the sense of clarity they express. These lines come at the end of a volley of self-identifications in which the two Antipholuses clarify who they are to the group. First, each identifies which Antipholus he is—that is, the one who passed through Corinth as a boy, or the one who ended up in Syracuse. Then they proceed to clarify which of the day’s events they were each involved in. Somewhat oddly, Antipholus of Syracuse never explicitly rejoices about finally reuniting with his long-lost brother after such a long quest to find him. But in lieu of joy, we can read this volley of self-identifications as the process through which Antipholus distinguishes himself from his brother and thereby regains a sense of self-certainty. Thus, his family reunion enables him to come back to himself.
