How did this come to you? MENAECHMUS SOSICLES The Courtesan who took me here (pointing to EROTIUM’S house) to breakfast, said that I had given it to her. I breakfasted very pleasantly; I drank and entertained myself with my mistress; she gave me the mantle and this golden trinket.(Showing the bracelet.)MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus. I’ faith, I’m glad if any luck has befallen you on my account; for when she invited you to her house, she supposed it to be me.MESSENIO Do you make any objection that I should be free as you commanded?MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus. He asks, brother, what’s very fair and very just. Do it for my sake.MENAECHMUS SOSICLES(touching MESSENIO’S shoulder.) Be thou a free man.MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus. I am glad, Messenio, that you are free.MESSENIO Why, better auspicesBetter auspices: He alludes to the pretended manumission which he has already received from Menaechmus of Epidamnus, when he took him to be his master were required that I should be free for life. MENAECHMUS SOSICLES Since these matters, brother, have turned out to our wishes, let us both return to our native land.MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus. Brother, I’ll do as you wish. I’ll have an auction here, and sell whatever I have. In the meantime, brother, let’s now go in-doors.MENAECHMUS SOSICLES Be it so. MESSENIO Do you know what I ask of you?MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus. What? MESSENIO To give me the place of auctioneer.MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus. It shall be given you. MESSENIO Would you like the auction, then, to be proclaimed at once? For what day?MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus. On the seventh day hence.MESSENIO(coming forward, and speaking in a loud voice.) An auction of the property of Menaechmus will certainly take place on the morning of the seventh day hence. His slaves, furniture, house, and farms, will be sold. All will go for whatever they’ll fetch at ready money prices. His wife, too, will be sold as well, if any purchaser shall come. I think that by the entire sale Menaechmus will hardly get fifty hundred thousandFifty hundred thousand: The sestertius, before the time of Augustus, was a silver coin of the value of twopence and one-half of a farthing; while after that period, its value was one penny three-farthings and a half. The large sum here mentioned, at the former value, amounts to 44,370£. 16s. 8d. He. says vix, it will hardly amount, by way of a piece of boasting. sesterces. (To the SPECTATORS.) Now, Spectators, fare you well, and give us loud applauseGive us loud applause: This Comedy, which is considered to be one of the best, if not the very best, of all the plays of Plautus, is thought by some to have been derived from one of Menander’s, as there are some fragments of a play by that Poet, called Διδυμοί, the Twins. It is, however, very doubtful if such is the fact. It is rendered doubly famous from the fact that Shakespeare borrowed the plot of his from it, through the medium of the old translation of the Play, published in the year 1595, which is in some parts a strict translation, though in others only an abridgment of the original work. It is thought to have been made by William Warner, who wrote a poem called Albion’s England, which he dedicated to Henry Cary, Lord Hunsdon, who was Lord Chamberlain to Queen Anne the wife of James the First..