Menaechmi home Plautus (Dramata)

MENAECHMI

Author: Plautus
Date: unknown
Model: unknown
Adaptations: William Shakespeare A Comedy of Errors

Texts and Commentaries

Latin text on-line at the Perseus Project (Leo 1895)
Lindsay, W.M. 1904-1905. T. Macci Plauti Comoediae. 2 vols. Clarendon: Oxford.
Nixon, Paul. 1916-38. Plautus. 5 vols. Loeb Classical Library 61. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2:363-487.
Ernout, Alfred. 1932. Plaute. 7 vols. Paris: Les Belles Lettres. 4:7-85.
Moseley, Nicholas and Mason Hammond. 1975. Plautus: Menaechmi. Rev. by Mason Hammond. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Lawall, Gilbert and Betty Nye Quinn. 1980. Plautus' Menaechmi. 2d ed. Waucanda: Bolchazy-Carducci.
Gratwick, A.S. 1993. Plautus: Menaechmi. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

English Translations Available

Riley, Henry Thomas. 1912. The Comedies of Plautus. 2 vols. London: G. Bell and Sons. 1.317-72.

translation on-line at the Perseus Project

Nixon, Paul. 1916-38. Plautus. 5 vols. Loeb Classical Library 61. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2:363-487.
Weist, Edward C. and Richard W. Hyde. 1942. The Complete Roman Drama, ed. George Duckworth. 2 vols. New York: Random House. 1:440-487.
Bovie, Palmer. 1962. Menaechmi. San Francisco: Chandler. Reprint in Plautus: The Comedies, eds. David R. Slavitt and Palmer Bovie. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1995. 4:79-174.
Watling, E. F. 1965. Plautus: The Pot of Gold and Other Plays. New York: Penguin. 97-146.
Segal, Erich. 1996. Plautus: Four Comedies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 75-130.
Berg, Deena and Douglass Parker. 1999. Plautus & Terence: Five Comedies. Indianapolis: Hacket. 99-190.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus
MENAECHMUS SOSICLES - his twin brother
PENICULUS - a parasite
MESSENIO - the servant of Menaechmus Sosicles
CYLINDRUS - a Cook
AN OLD MAN - father in law of Menaechmus
A DOCTOR
THE WIFE OF MENAECHMUS
EROTIUM - a Courtesan
MAID-SERVANT of Erotium

Act and Scene	Lines	Characters	Action
Prologue	1-76		A man who had twin sons brought his sons to the Tarentum games. A merchant from Epidamnus picked one up one of the children and brought him to Epidamnus. The father of the twins died of grief and the grandfather loved the lost twin so much that he renamed the other twin after him. The merchant adopted the stolen twin and made him his heir. When he died, the twin inherited a large fortune.
I.i	77-109	Peniculus	Peniculus is outside telling the audience how much he loves to eat.
I.ii	110-181	Menaechmus of Epidamnus Peniculus	Menaechmus leaves his house arguing with his wife. He says to himself that he is going to find a mistress. He has stolen his wife’s mantle and intends to give it to his mistress. He shows this to Peniculus and asks him to smell it. Peniculus says it smells like theft, a mistress, and breakfast. They go to Erotium’s door and she comes out.
I.iii	182-218	Menaechmus of Epidamnus Peniculus Erotium	They go into Erotium’s house, Menaechmus gives her the mantle and tells her to get some food ready. Peniculus is irritated and makes mean comments about Erotium. Menaechmus and Peniculus leave and go to the forum until the food is ready.
I.iv	219-225	Erotium Cylindrus	Erotium gives Cylindrus money and tells him to go get food and prepare it for her, Menaechmus, and Peniculus.
II.i	226-272	Menaechmus Sosicles Messenio	Menaechmus Sosicles and Messenio are sailing through the ocean. They have been searching for Menaechmus Sosicles’s twin brother for 6 years. They are about to land in Epidamnus.
II.ii	273-350	Cylindrus Menaechmus Sosicles Messenio	Cylindrus sees Menaechmus Sosicles and thinks that he is Menaechmus. He starts telling him that the breakfast isn’t ready yet. Menaechmus Sosicles and Messenio think he is deranged and he is trying to swindle them. Cylindrus goes back in to start cooking.
II.iii	351-445	Erotium Menaechmus Sosicles Messenio	Erotium sees Menaechmus Sosicles and asks him to come inside. He says that he does not know who she is. She thinks he is joking. Messenio says that she is a swindler and warns Menaechmus Sosicles not to go inside. Menaechmus Sosicles decides that he wants to go inside so that he can be entertained. He tells her that he said he didn’t know her so that Messenio would not tell his wife. He sends Messenio to take his sailors and crew to an inn and come back to meet him.
III.i	446-465	Peniculus	Peniculus enters and says that Menaechmus ran away from him in the forum. He thinks that Menaechmus went to see his mistress and didn’t want him to come. He is angry that he lost his breakfast. He sees Menaechmus Sosicles coming out of Erotium’s house with the mantle.
III.ii	466-523	Peniculus Menaechmus Sosicles	Peniculus approaches Menaechmus Sosicles and is angry at him for not bringing him to breakfast. Menaechmus Sosicles says that he doesn’t know what he is talking about. Peniculus says that he is going to tell his wife.
III.iii	524-558	Menaechmus Sosicles a maid-servant of Erotium	A maid-servant of Erotium comes out of the house and asks Menaechmus Sosicles to take a bracelet that Menaechmus gave to Erotium to the goldsmith and add an ounce of gold to it. Then she asks him to give her some earrings. He tells her to give him the gold and he will have them made. But she wants him to give her the gold too.
IV.i	559-570	wife of Menaechmus Peniculus	Peniculus has told Menaechmus’s wife about his mistress. They find the chaplet that Menaechmus Sosicles was wearing that he left on the ground to make them think he had gone the other way. They hide and wait for Menaechmus.
IV.ii	571-674	Menaechmus Peniculus wife of Menaechmus	Menaechmus enters and has been in the forum all day. He was caught up with a certain dependent. Peniculus and his wife confront him. Menaechmus says he has loaned the mantle to someone and denies giving it to his mistress. She puts him out of the house.
IV.iii	675-700	Menaechmus Erotium	He goes to Erotium’s house to get the mantle back but she tells him that she already gave it to him to bring to the embroiderer. She tells him he can have it and do what he wants with it. She kicks him out of the house and goes inside.
V.i	701-752	Menaechmus Sosicles wife of Menaechmus	The wife of Menaechmus sees Menaechmus Sosicles carrying her mantle. She approaches him and gripes at him. He says that he does not know who she is and that a woman gave him the mantle to bring to the embroiderer. She asks if he knows her father.
V.ii	753-875	old man wife of Menaechmus Menaechmus Sosicles	The old man enters talking about how his daughter always calls him when she is fighting with her husband. First he scolds her. She tells him that Menaechmus is in love with a courtesan and has been stealing her things to give to the courtesan. Menaechmus Sosicles denies that he knows either of them or has ever been in her house. They think he is mad and want to lock him up in the house. Not wanting to be locked up, Menaechmus Sosicles plays along and pretends that Apollo is telling him to beat them up. They both leave.
V.iii	876-888	old man	The old man is waiting for the doctor so that he can tell him about Menaechmus.
V.iv	889-898	old man doctor	The old man says he came to the doctor to find out what is wrong with Menaechmus. They see Menaechmus and watch him.
V.v	899-965	Menaechmus of Epidamnus doctor old man	Menaechmus enters talking about what has happened to him and says that he is a wretched man. The doctor approaches and questions him. Menaechmus gets angry. The old man accuses him and goes to fetch servants to bring Menaechmus to the doctor’s house. The doctor goes to get everything ready.
V.vi	966-989	Messenio	Messenio enters bragging about how well he serves his master. He knocks on Erotium’s door to get Menaechmus Sosicles.
V.vii	990-1049	Old man Messenio servants Menaechmus	The old man tells the servants to carry Menaechmus to the doctor’s house. Messenio runs up to help. They fight and the servants run away. Messenio says that he would do right to free him. Menaechmus says that he is not his master but as far as he is concerned he is free. Messenio leaves to get the purse and luggage from the inn for him. Menaechmus goes into Erotium’s house to get the mantle.
V.viii	1050-1059	Menaechmus Sosicles Messenio	Messenio tells him that he just saved him so Menaechmus freed him.
V.ix	1060-1162	Menaechmus Messenio Menaechmus Sosicles	Menaechmus comes out of Erotium’s house where Menaechmus Sosicles and Messenio are standing. Menaechmus and Menaechmus Sosicles see each other and realize they have the same name, and they discover that they are twin brothers. Menaechmus Sosicles frees Messenio. Menaechmus auctions off his property including his slaves, farms and even his wife.