The Brothers Menaechmus

“Chief Actor: And then–so he could make the boy his heir–he died.

By chance, out in the country in a rain severe,

He tried to cross a rapid stream–not far from here.

The rapid river rapt the kidnapper, who fell,

Caught in the current, heading hurriedly to hell.”

With their ironic perspective (the idea that the merchant died to make Menaechmus his heir) and their blurring of the boundaries between illusion and reality (the notion that a fictitious place is near to the actual site of the theatre) these lines exemplify much of the humour of the play. They also illustrate Plautus’s tendency to extract the maximum creative potential from a word’s sound and rhythm. Here, the alliteration, assonance and rhyme give the lines all the malleability of a tongue-twister.

“Chief Actor: This town is Epidamnus, while the play is on.

But when we play another play, its name will change

Just like the actors living here, whose roles can range

From pimp to papa, or to lover pale and wan,

To pauper, parasite, to king or prophet, on and on.”

Stock characters are a staple of many dramatic forms, including Greek comedy, medieval mystery plays and Italian commedia dell’arte, and Plautus employs a number of them in this play, including the old man, the cook, the doctor and the prostitute. With its pacey roll-call of characters and its use of the vague “on and on,” the Prologue suggests that the audience were familiar with these roles. The pleasure of the performance was in watching how the playwright combined the different archetypes and set them to work.