440 Specimens of Latin Comedy [ APRIL, 



taken out of the most excellent wittie Poet Plautus, chosen purposely 

 as least harmfull, yet most delightful." It has also been imitated in 

 French, by Regnard; whose play entitled, Les Menechmes ou les 

 Jtimeaux, is considered the most lively, and in every respect the best 

 imitation of this comedy, which is certainly one of the best of Plautus's, 

 and is decribed by a learned commentator, as festivissima atqne eruditce 

 varietatisfabula. 



The whole plot and humour of this play is founded on the perfect 

 resemblance of the twin sons of a merchant of Syracuse. And, as we 

 have intimated, the mistakes and misunderstandings which arise on both 

 sides from this personal likeness, the unwitting counterworkings of the 

 two Menaechmi, and the upshot of the whole in the discovery of their 

 brotherhood, render the intrigue particularly interesting. One of these 

 children, called Menaechmus, had been lost by his father in Syracuse, 

 in the midst of a dense crowd in the street, and upon being found by a 

 Greek trader, was conveyed by him to Epidamnum, (the Roman 

 Dyrrhacium, now, Durazzo,) and kindly received into his family. But 

 the father did not long survive the loss of his child ; and the grand- 

 father, to mollify a little the grief which he felt on the occasion, gave 

 the other, (before called Sosicles,) his brother's name of Menaechmus. 

 Months and years rolled on, till at last the original Menaechmus was 

 adopted by his protector, and the other Menaechmus, (originally Sosicles,) 

 was arrived at an age, at which he might be trusted to act on his own 

 account, and follow the profession of his late father. Accordingly, the 

 latter, willing to spare no exertions for the discovery and restoration of 

 his brother, undertook many expeditions and travelled in every direc- 

 tion in search of him, till in the course of his peregrinations he came to 

 Epidamnum, where every one he met seemed to look on him as on one 

 with whose person they were familiar, and many to his surprise, whom 

 he had never seen before, greeted him by his name, and offered him 

 the usual salutations in the most friendly manner ; and even the wife of 

 the Epidamnian Menaechmus, takes him for her husband. And here 

 again, we have the parasite acting one of the principal parts. The play 

 opens indeed, with the preparation for an entertainment, which Me- 

 naechmus of Epidamnum had ordered for his mistress Erotium, and to 

 which the parasite was invited. The Syracusan brother happening to 

 pass, is asked to come in by his brother's mistress, who falls into the 

 common error, and partakes with her of the feast. This greatly enrages 

 Peniculus, the parasite, when he finds that the banquet is over and he 

 has been overlooked. (Act. iii. sc. 1.) He (Menaechmus of Syracuse) 

 receives from her, in order to carry it to the embroiderer's, a robe, 

 which his brother had abstracted from his wife's wardrobe to present to 

 his mistress. He is afterwards attacked by his brother's wife and her 

 father ; he of course is quite ignorant of the whole affair ; and answers 

 as if he were so ; this convinces them that he is deranged, and the old 

 man goes for a physician. The Syracusan escapes; but they soon 

 afterwards lay hold of the Epidamnian, in order to carry him to the 

 physician's house, when the servant of the Syracusan, mistaking him 

 for his master, rescues him from their hands, and for a recompence 

 demands and at once receives his liberty. The Epidamnian then goes 

 to his mistress to persuade her to return the robe to his wife. The 

 scene which occurs between them is very amusing ; the innocent igno- 

 rance of the husband, the half-feigned suspicions of Erotium, and the 



