The Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night 

In TheComedy of Errorsa nd Twelfth Night, the Mediterranean sea acts as both the initial disruptive force and the ultimate catalyst for resolution staging the fracturing and ultimate re-formation of identity. The fluid identities of the characters are directly paralleled by the plays’ settings, steeped in a geographical ambiguity — from the dualistic Ephesus, simultaneously a hub of mercantile ambition and Christian significance, to an Illyria that subtly interweaves Greek and Ottoman elements while resembling early modern London. This volume offers original insights into this unique spatial and personal liminality, examining how it not only enables profound transformations but also positions these comedies as exemplary “staged Mediterranean plays” where internal and external boundaries blur, leading to the constant renegotiation and eventual restoration of identity.

Beatrice Righetti is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in English Literature at the University of Verona. She has published on Shakespeare, Renaissance women writers and Anglo-Italian relations. Her first monograph is titled Shakespeare’s Shrews: Italian Traditions of Paradoxes and the Woman’s Debate (Routledge 2025).

Roberta Zanoni is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in English Literature at the University of Verona. She has published contributions on the intertextual relations existing between Shakespeare’s plays and their European sources as well as popular culture and new media.