# Duke Solinus — The Comedy of Errors character guide

> Duke Solinus in The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Duke, Duke Menaphon

**First appearance:** 0002-act-i-scene-i

## Snapshot

Ephesus's ruler, bound by a treaty he did not write to execute a Syracuse merchant he does not want to kill.

## Who they are

Solinus opens the play caught between statute and sympathy: the trade war with Syracuse condemns Aegeon to die unless a thousand marks appear, and the Duke knows the man's whole estate cannot reach a hundred. He refuses to bend the law — I am not partial to infringe our laws — but he grants Aegeon the day to tell his story, a mercy that becomes the play's frame. His authority hovers over Ephesus as the confusion escalates, and his final role as the arbiter who must sort out the arrested, the mad, and the identical is prepared from his very first scene.

## Relationships

### [Aegeon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_comedy_of_errors_se/characters/aegeon)

_social_

Aegeon is a prisoner before Duke Solinus, who shows mercy by granting him a day to find ransom.

## In the story

### [Scene I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_comedy_of_errors_se/chapters/act-i-scene-i)

Presides over Aegeon's sentencing; shows pity but upholds the law.

### [Scene I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_comedy_of_errors_se/chapters/act-v-scene-i)

Presides over the execution of Aegeon but ultimately pardons him after the recognition.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_comedy_of_errors_se/characters/duke_solinus
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_comedy_of_errors_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_comedy_of_errors_se/characters