for what I did alone by myself, and when not another person was present in the tent, that, he certainly will never be able this day to tell me. (Aloud.) If you are Sosia, when the armies were fighting most vigorously, what were you doing in the tent? If you tell me that, I’m vanquished. MERCURY There was a cask of wine; from it I filled an earthen pot An earthen pot : Hirneam. Hirnea was an earthen vessel for holding wine. It was said to receive its name from the Greek word ὄρνις a bird, because it originally bore the figure of a bird. . SOSIA (aside.) He has got upon the track. MERCURY That I drew full of pure wine, just as it was born from the mother grape. SOSIA (aside.) It’s a wonder if this fellow wasn’t lying hid inside of that earthen pot. It is the fact, that there I did drink an earthen pot full of wine. MERCURY Well—do I now convince you by my proofs that you are not Sosia? SOSIA Do you deny that I am? MERCURY Why should I not deny it, who am he myself? SOSIA By Jupiter I swear that I am he, and that I do not say false. MERCURY But by Mercury, I swear that Jupiter does not believe you; for I am sure that he will rather credit me without an oath than you with an oath. SOSIA Who am I, at all events, if I am not Sosia? I ask you that. MERCURY When I choose not to be Sosia, then do you be Sosia; now, since I am he, you’ll get a thrashing, if you are not off hence, you fellow without a name. SOSIA (aside.) Upon my faith, for sure, when I examine him and recollect my own figure, just in such manner as I am (I’ve often looked in a glass Looked in a glass : He seems to speak of looking in a mirror as something uncommon for a slave to do. Probably the expense of them did not allow of their being used by slaves. The specula, or looking-glasses, of the ancients, were usually made of metal, either a composition of tin and copper or of silver; but in later times, alloy was mixed with the silver. Pliny mentions the obsidian stone, or, as it is now called, Icelandic agate, as being used for this purpose. He also says that mirrors were made in the glass-houses of Sidon, which consisted of glass plates with leaves of metal at the back. These were probably of an inferior character. Those of copper and tin were made chiefly at Brundisium. The white metal formed from this mixture soon becoming dim, a sponge, with powdered pumice-stone, was usually fastened to the mirrors made of that composition. They were generally small, of round or oval shape, and having a handle. The female slaves usually held them while their mistresses were performing the duties of the toilet. Sometimes they were fastened to the walls, and they were occasionally of the length of a person’s body, like the cheval glasses of our day ):, he is exactly like me. He has the broad-brimmed hat and clothing just the same; he is as like me as I am myself. His leg, foot, stature, shorn head, eyes, nose, even his lips, cheeks, chin, beard, neck—the whole of him. What need is there of words? If his back is marked with scars, than this likeness there is nothing more like. But when I reflect, really, I surely am the same person that I always was. My master I know, I know our I house; I am quite in my wits and senses. I’m not going to I obey this fellow in what he says; I’ll knock at the door. (Goes towards the door.) MERCURY Whither are you betaking yourself? SOSIA Home. MERCURY If now you were to ascend the chariot of Jove and fly away from here, then you could hardly be able to escape destruction. SOSIA Mayn’t I be allowed to deliver the message to my mistress that my master ordered me to give? MERCURY If you want to deliver any message to your own mistress; this mistress of mine I shall not allow you to approach. But if you provoke me, you’ll be just now taking hence your loins broken. SOSIA In preference, I’ll be off. (Aside.) Immortal Gods, I do beseech your mercy. Where did I lose myself? Where have I been transformed? Where have I parted with my figure? Or have I left myself behind there, if perchance I have forgotten it? For really this person has possession of all my figure, such as it formerly was. While living, that is done for me, which no one will ever do for me when dead When dead : It is generally thought that he is punning here upon the word imago, and alludes to the practice of carrying the imagines, or waxen images of their ancestors, in the funeral processions of the Patricians—an honor, he says, that will never befall him when he is dead. Douza, however, thinks that he is playing upon the expression ludos facere, which has the double meaning of to impose upon a person, or to give a spectacle of gladiators after the death of a person of Patrician rank; and that he means to say that the act ludos faciendi is being applied to him (in the first sense): while alive, a thing that (in the second sense) will never befall him when dead. . I’ll go to the harbour, and I’ll tell my master these things as they have happened—unless even he as well shall not know me, which may Jupiter grant, so that this day, bald, with shaven crown, I may assume the cap of freedom Cap of freedom : When a slave was made free, after his manumission his head was shaved, and a cap put upon it in the Temple of Feronia, the Goddess of Freedmen. . (Exit.) (MERCURY, alone) MERCURY Well and prosperously has this affair gone on for me; from the door have I removed the greatest obstacle, so that it may be allowed my father to embrace her in security. When now he shall have reached his master, Amphitryon there, he will say that the servant Sosia has repulsed himself from the door here; and then the other will suppose that he is telling him a lie, and will not believe that he has come here as he had ordered him. Both of them and the whole household of Amphitryon I will fill with mistakes and distraction, even until my father shall have had full enjoyment of her whom he loves; then at last all shall know what has been done. In the end Jupiter shall restore Alcmena to the former affection of her husband. For Amphitryon will just now be beginning a quarrel with his wife, and will be accusing her of incontinence; then will my father change for her this strife into tranquillity. Now, inasmuch as yet I’ve said but little about Alcmena, this day will she bring forth two sons, twins; the one will be born in the tenth month after he was begotten, the other in the seventh month In the seventh month : It is difficult to imagine how a critic can suppose that the duration of this Play is intended to be seven months, merely because, according to the ancient story, Hercules was born seven months after the intercourse of Jupiter with Alcmena. Heinsius and Vossius, however, were of this extraordinary opinion. They probably did not reflect that Plautus, for the sake of finding material for his Play, supposed the same intercourse to have been repeated on the same night on which Hercules was born. ; of these the one is the son of Amphitryon Son of Amphitryon : Iphiclus was the son of Amphitryon. , the other of Jupiter. But of the younger son the father is the superior, of the elder the inferior. (To the AUDIENCE.) Now do you comprehend this how it is? But for the sake of the honor Of the honor : Honoris. Madame Dacier has observed, that the tenderness of Jupiter extended only to her health, and not to her reputation, as the word honoris would seem to imply. Honoris gratiâ may however, simply mean for her own sake. of this Alcmena, my father will take care that it shall happen at one birth, so that in one travail she may complete her double pangs, and not be laid under suspicion of unchastity, and that the clandestine connexion may remain concealed. Although, as I have said just now, Amphitryon shall still know all the matter in the end. What then? No one surely will impute it to Alcmena as a disgrace; for it does not seem that a God is acting justly to permit his own offences and his own faultiness to fall upon a mortal. I’ll cut short my talk: the door makes a noise. See, the counterfeit Amphitryon is coming out of doors, and together with him Alcmena, the wife that he has taken the loan of. (Enter JUPITER and ALCMENA, from the house.) JUPITER Kindly fare you well, Alcmena; take care, as you are doing, of our common interest,