Earlier today I did a pre regarding servants, servitude and Shakespeare's farce. In Shakespeare's time, 60-70 percent of the population had the experience of working as a servant in someone else's household. Thus, a large part of his audience in the public theatre would feel related to his abused servants. With that perspective, we may have a new view of how the practical jokes worked out when the servants were bottom of the joke in his farce.
However, as to Comedy of Errors this specific play, we should note that the only two performance record entries of Comedy of Errors in Shakespeare's time were both in private housings. One in a small pub(?), another in the court. Before we evacuate solid evidence of this play performing in public theatres, it is still unsafe to say Shakespeare meant to write a tragic comedy in the first place if only by depicting the sufferings of servants.
