Menaechmi

Menaechmi
Plautus
Written by	Plautus
Characters	Peniculus (Menaechmus's friend) Menaechmus of Epidamnus Erotium (Menaechmus's mistress) Cylindrus (Erotium's cook) Sosicles/Menaechmus of Syracuse) Messenio (slave) Erotium's servant Menaechmus's wife Father-in-law of Menaechmus a doctor Decio (wife's servant)
Setting	a street in Epidamnus, before the houses of Menaechmus and Erotium

Menaechmi, a Latin-language play, is considered by many as Plautus' greatest play. Its title is sometimes translated as The Brothers Menaechmus or The Two Menaechmuses.

The Menaechmi is a play about mistaken identity, involving a set of twins, Menaechmus of Epidamnus and Menaechmus of Syracuse. It incorporates various Roman stock characters including the parasite, the comic courtesan, the comic servant, the domineering wife, the doddering father-in-law and the quack doctor. As with most of Plautus's plays, much of the dialogue was sung.^{[citation needed]}

Plot

This section may require copy-editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling. You can assist by editing it now. (October 2009)

Moschus had twin sons, Menaechmus and Sosicles. He took one of his twins, Menaechmus, with him on a business trip when he was only seven. They were separated and Menaechmus was adopted by a businessman who lived in Epidamnus. His original father died of grief, and his twin brother was renamed Menaechmus after his long-lost brother.

After years of searching, "Menaechmus" Sosicles is ready to give up hope and return home and makes one last stop at Epidamnus. The play contains many cases of mistaken identity, which is driven by the two characters never meeting for a large portion of the play. The mistaken identity causes Sosicles to view the people of Epidamnus as being rude and crazy and Menaechmus to get into a lot of trouble with both his wife and his friend Peniculus.

The end of the play is when Menaechmus and Sosicles finally meet and are confronted that they are twins. Sosicles's slave Messenio is the hero as he sorts out that they are twins and Menaechmus is the missing brother that they had been searching for. Messenio is granted his freedom at the end of the play.

Adaptations and influences

This play was the major source for William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, which was subsequently adapted for the musical theatre by Rodgers and Hart in The Boys from Syracuse. A similar line of influence was Carlo Goldoni's 1747 play I due gemelli veneziani ("The two Venetian twins") (also adapted as The Venetian Twins in 1979). Shakespeare's Twelfth Night also features mistaken twins, the sister dressed as a boy.

Translations

• Henry Thomas Riley, 1912: Menaechmi (full text)
• Paul Nixon, 1916-38
• Edward C. Weist and Richard W. Hyde, 1942
• Palmer Bovie, 1962
• E. F. Watling, 1965
• Erich Segal, 1996
• Deena Berg and Douglass Parker, 1999

Latin text

• Menaechmi at The Latin Library (full latin text)
• Menaechmi at Perseus (full latin text)

v • d • e Surviving plays by Plautus Amphitryon · Asinaria · Aulularia · Bacchides · Captivi · Casina · Curculio · Epidicus · Menaechmi · Mercator · Miles Gloriosus · Mostellaria · Persa · Poenulus · Pseudolus · Rudens · Stichus · Trinummus · Truculentus · Vidularia (fragmentary)

This article on a play is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e