31 pages • 1 hour read
PlautusThe Brothers Menaechmus
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“Entry of Menaechmus II”-“Entry of Menaechmus’s Wife”Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Summary: “Entry of Menaechmus II”-“Entry of Menaechmus’s Wife”
While Cylindrus goes off to buy supplies, Menaechmus II and his slave, Messenio, enter the stage from the harbor. Both are relieved to be on dry land, but Messenio is fed up with what he sees as their wild goose chase to find the lost, and potentially dead, Menaechmus. He is also wary of Epidamnus itself, advising his master that it is populated by “libertines,” “bamboozlers,” “flatterers,” and “wanton women” (259-61). Duly warned, Menaechmus takes his money from Messenio, worrying that his slave will be the first to succumb to the lure of “Epidamnation” (267).
Cylindrus then re-enters and the inevitable confusion begins. Mistaking Menaechmus II for his twin, Cylindrus asks where Peniculus has gone to, while Menaechmus II expresses astonishment at being addressed by a total stranger. Both men think that the other one is losing their wits, although Cylindrus suspects that the supposed Menaechmus might be playing a trick on him and invites Menaechmus II into the feast before going inside.
Menaechmus II, however, thinks that he is being lured into a trap, and when Erotium comes out and invites him to “come and dine” (367), he thinks she must be after his money. However, when he gives the purse back to Messenio, Erotium continues trying to seduce him and says that she wants to give him a dress. Spotting an opportunity for a quick profit, Menaechmus II changes his mind. He sends the reluctant Messenio to their lodgings and disappears inside the house.
After a short pause, Peniculus re-enters and delivers a soliloquy about the inconvenience of public duty. Having been waylaid at a public meeting in the forum, and fearing that Menaechmus will have finished the feast without him, he argues that such assemblies should be the duty of otherwise unoccupied men (i.e. men who do not spend as much time eating and drinking as he does). His fears are seemingly confirmed when Menaechmus II tumbles out of Erotium’s house, garlanded and drunk. When Menaechmus II denies having a wife, says he has no idea who Peniculus is, and calls him a “raving lunatic!” (517), the parasite becomes even angrier and resolves to have revenge on his former patron.
Menaechmus II is confused but continues to see the bizarre situation as his lucky break. When Erotium’s maid gives him a bracelet to take to the jewelers, he steals it for himself, along with the dress, and declares that “the gods have fully fostered me and favoured me unfailingly!” (551). Planning to run away while the going is good, he exits the stage.
“Entry of Menaechmus II”-“Entry of Menaechmus’s wife” Analysis
In the context of the strict, puritanical regime of Plautus’s Rome, the theatre was a place of carnival, where rules were relaxed and fantasies could be played out in the fictitious world of “exotic Greece” (236). When Menaechmus II and Messenio enter the city from the harbor, they are stepping into a space where anything is possible. While this prospect of untrammeled indulgence frightens Messenio, it excites Menaechmus, who resolves to exploit it to the full. As the play progresses, we see Messenio becoming more open to this ideal of liberty, finally asking to be freed from his servitude.
With the presence of Cylindrus and Messenio, the play probes ideas of slavery and ownership. The relationship between Menaechmus II and Messenio begins as relatively harmonious, with Messenio free to criticize his master, and Menaechmus II addressing him as “my dear Messenio” (226). However, Messenio soon oversteps the mark by repeating his complaint about needles in haystacks (238, 246), and Menaechmus II rebukes him with a stream of five imperatives: Obey your orders, eat what’s served you, keep from mischief! And don’t annoy me. Do things my way (248-9).
Messenio’s cowed response is a stark reminder of the power imbalance inherent in their relationship: “I get the word. The word is simple: I’m a slave” (251). The alliteration, basic syntax and staccato rhythm emphasize the military strictures of the master-slave dynamic. Moreover, with Cylindrus fearing that he will be beaten for arriving back at the house after the person he believes to be Menaechmus–“Now my back is dead!” (275)–the audience starts to wonder whether Peniculus’s theories about the luxurious nature of slavery are really valid.
