Quite naturally treated as a stranger, Peniculus angrily rushes to tell the other twin's wife of the stolen mantle. He is chuckling over his luck-dinner, kisses and an expensive mantle-all for nothing, when the irate Peniculus, who has lost the Epidamnus twin in the Forum crowd, meets him and berates him for dining before he could arrive. He sends Messenio to the inn, giving him orders to return for his master at sunset.Īfter the meal, he leaves his house with a garland on his head and the mantle over his arm Erotium has told him to have it re-trimmed. He first protests vainly that he hasn't any wife and has just arrived in the city, then begins to realize the possibilities of a dinner and a pretty girl. Peniculus, he answers, is in his baggage-and what dinner is she talking about? The dinner he ordered when he presented his wife's mantle, she replies. This amazes the twin, but Messenio explains that spies of the city's thieves probably have learned his name.Įrotium, tiring of what she considers foolery, tells Menaechmus to come in to dinner and bring Peniculus. He is Menaechmus, of course, replies Erotium.
Messenio whispers to his master that the lady undoubtedly is a schemer for his money, and asks her if she knows his master. Why, the business of Venus, Erotium replies coyly. She asks why he hesitates to enter when dinner is ready, and the confused twin asks her, quite formally, what business he has with her. His master gives his purse for safekeeping to the slave who continues his warning against the cunning people of Epidamnus "who think nothing of accosting a stranger" and bilking him of his money, when Erotium steps out of her house and endearingly accosts the Syracuse Menaechmus, thinking him to be his brother. The latter warns him of the depravity of Epidamnus, urging an end to the search for his missing brother since their money is nearly gone. Meanwhile, the twin from Syracuse has arrived with Messenio, his slave. Erotium agrees, and the two men go to the Forum for preliminary drinks while the meal is being prepared. He suggests that a fitting return would include a dinner for himself and Peniculus.
The two go to Erotium's door, and the husband presents the mantle with many blandishments.
#Plautus menaechmi professional
He confides to Peniculus, a professional parasite, that he has stolen his wife's mantle and is going to give it to Erotium, a prostitute who lives next door. He is seen leaving his house, berating his spouse as a shrew and a harpy, promising that she shall have good cause for her jealousy. Here, the brother is first shown to be, with good cause, the despair of his jealous wife. He arrives in Epidamnus, unaware that his twin brother is there also. When the twins are grown to manhood, Menaechmus of Syracuse sets out in search of his brother. During the trip, Menaechmus is abducted and adopted by a businessman who lives in Epidamnus, separating the twins.
Moschus decides to take only one of the twins, Menaechmus, with him on a business trip, while the twins are still young. Moschus has twin sons, Menaechmus and Sosicles.
0 kommentar(er)
