I’ faith, I will. MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus. We’re going to the Forum: we shall be here just now. While it’s cooking, we’ll take a whet in the meantime.EROTIUM Come when you like, the things shall be ready.MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus. Only make haste, then. Do you follow me(to PENICULUS.)PENICULUS By my troth, I certainly shall keep an eye on you, and follow you. I wouldn’t take the wealth of the Gods to lose you this day.(Exeunt MENAECHMUS and PENICULUS.)EROTIUM(speaking at the door of her house.) Call Cylindrus, the cook, out of doors this moment from within.

(Enter CYLINDRUS, from the house.)EROTIUM Take a hand-basket and some money. See, you have three didrachmns here.(Giving him money..)CYLINDRUS I have so. EROTIUM Go and bring some provisions, see that there’s enough for three; let it be neither deficient nor overmuch.CYLINDRUS What sort of persons are these to be?EROTIUM Myself, Menaechmus, and his Parasite.CYLINDRUS Then these make ten, for the Parasite easily performs the duty of eight personsDuty of eight persons: Athenaeus, Book I., quotes a passage from Eubulus, the Comic writer, where he represents a Parasite as being counted or two or even three at table..EROTIUM I’ve now told you the guests; do you take care of the rest.CYLINDRUS Very well.It’s cooked already; bid them go and take their places.EROTIUM Make haste back. CYLINDRUS I’ll be here directly.(Exit CYLINDRUS, and EROTIUM goes into her house.)

(Enter MENAECHMUS SOSICLES and MESSENIO.)MENAECHMUS SOSICLES There’s no greater pleasure to voyagers, in my notion, Messenio, than at the moment when from sea they espy the land afar.MESSENIO There is a greater, I’ll say it without subterfuge,—if on your arrival you see the land that is your own.But, prithee, why are we now come to Epidamnus? Why, like the sea, are we going round all the islands?MENAECHMUS SOSICLES To seek for my own twin-brother born?MESSENIO Why, what end is there to be of searching for him? This is the sixth year that we’ve devoted our attention to this business.We have been already carried round the IstriansThe Istrians: The Istrians were a people of the north of Italy, near the Adriatic Sea, and adjoining to Illyricum. The Illyrians inhabited the countries now called Dalmatia and Sclavonia. The Massilians were the natives of the city of Massilia, now called Marseilles, in the south of France, where Pontius Pilate ended his days in banishment. The Hispani were the inhabitants of Hispania, now Spain., the Hispanians, the Massilians, the Illyrians, all the Upper Adriatic Sea, and foreign Greece And foreign Greece : The Graecia exotica, or foreign Greece, here mentioned, was the southern part of Italy, which was also called Magna Graecia, in consequence of the great number of Grecian settlements there. The Greeks were in the habit of calling the Sicilians and Calabrians Ἕλληνασ ἐξωτικούς, barbarian or foreign Greeks., and all the shores of Italy, wherever the sea reaches them. If you had been searching for a needle, I do believe you would, long ere this, have found the needle, if it were visible. Among the living are we seeking a person that’s dead; for long ago should we have found him if he had been alive.MENAECHMUS SOSICLES For that reason I am looking for a person to give me that information for certain, who can say that he knows that he really is dead; after that I shall never take any trouble in seeking further.But otherwise I shall never, while I’m alive, desist; I know how dear he is to my heart.MESSENIO You are seeking a knot in a bulrushIn a bulrush: Those who made difficulties when there really was no difficulty at all, were said in scirpo nodum quaerereto seek a knot in a bulrush, the stem of which is perfectly smooth.. Why don’t we return homeward hence, unless we are to write a historyTo write a history: A narrative or history of their travels. Boxhorn thinks that the remark alludes to the voyage of Ulysses, a counterpart of which voyage could not be written without great personal observation, and an extensive knowledge of geography.?MENAECHMUS SOSICLES Have done with your witty sayings, and be on your guard against a mischief. Don’t you be troublesome; this matter shan’t be done at your bidding.MESSENIO(aside.) Aye, aye; by that same expression do I rest assured that I’m a slave; he couldn’t in a few words have said more in a plain-spoken way. But still I can’t restrain myself from speaking. (Aloud.) Do you hear, Menaechmus? When I look in the purse,