The Brothers Menaechmus

Intent on revenge, Peniculus enters with Menaechmus’s wife and stokes her fury at her wayward husband. Menaechmus enters, unaware of their presence, and sings a song about the Roman system of patronage, which has delayed him in the forum. Caught in the act, Menaechmus is given a thorough reprimand from both his wife and his parasite. In the end, he promises to retrieve the dress from Erotium, although he secretly believes he can just retreat to his lover’s house. However, when Menaechmus asks Erotium to return the dress, she is outraged and accuses him of trying to cheat her by taking the dress back and then denying it. She slams the door in his face and Menaechmus slopes off stage, “universally kicked out” (698).

Menaechmus II enters the stage, only to be intercepted by Menaechmus’s wife, who mistakes him for her husband. When she asks him for the dress, he calls her a “wild and wicked woman” (731). Outraged, she orders a slave to find her father, an elderly man who enters slowly, singing a song about the trials of old age. He predicts that his daughter has been nagging her husband too much: “Don’t check what he’s doing,” he advises, “where he’s going, what his business is” (788). However, after speaking to Menaechmus II, he decides that he is, after all, “the very maddest man on earth” (819).

In order to get rid of them, Menaechmus II decides to play up to their expectations and feign madness, pretending to be possessed by the gods Bacchus and Apollo. Under the cover of insanity, he threatens to “set this woman’s eyes on fire” (841) and “trample on this […] creaking, stinking, toothless lion” (864). His plan works. The wife runs off stage, while the old man flees to fetch a doctor.

By the time the old man returns with the doctor, Menaechmus II has run off to the harbor and been replaced on stage by Menaechmus himself, who delivers a soliloquy about his frustrated plans and betrayal by Peniculus and Erotium. As a result, the old man examines the wrong Menaechmus for madness. However, as Menaechmus is so confused and infuriated, he still comes across as insane in the doctor’s eyes: “you think you’re talking to a lobster do you, rotten man!” (924). The doctor flees, while the old man goes to fetch slaves, who will bring Menaechmus in for treatment. 

Messenio enters, singing about the nature of a loyal slave, just in time to rescue Menaechmus from the slaves who arrive to carry him off. A slapstick fight ensues. Finally, the slaves retreat and Messenio asks Menaechmus to free him from slavery in return. Although he has no idea who Messenio is (and although he does not have the authority to do so), Menaechmus agrees. Messenio leaves to fetch Menaechmus II’s money, which Menaechmus sees as an opportunity to gain back some profit after all the losses of the day.

Messenio bumps into Menaechmus II, who reproaches him for presuming he has been freed: “I would rather make myself a slave than ever set you free” (1059). At the critical moment of confusion, however, Menaechmus is shoved by Erotium out of her door. Messenio notices the uncanny resemblance and helps his master to notice it, too; Menaechmus II promises to free Messenio if he can establish that the other man really is his brother.

Piece by piece, the twins realize that they have the same birthplace, name, family and memories. They finally recognize each other and embrace. After Menaechmus II frees Messenio, the brothers decide to return to Syracuse together. The play closes with Messenio announcing to the audience an auction of Menaechmus’s property, possessions and, provided he can find a buyer, his wife.