King Pterelas us'd to drink from. Sos. He has faid.-- But where now is the cup? MERC. 'Tis in a casket Seal'd with Amphitryon's feal. Sos. What's the impreffion? 365 MERC, Sol rifing in his chariot.---What, you rascal, Are you upon the catch? Sos. His arguments Have overcome me: I must e'en go seek Was in the tent, that he can never tell.-- (to Mercury) If you are Sofia,---tell me,---while the armies Were in the heat of battle, what did you Do in the tent?---Tell that, and I knock under. 375 MERC. There was a cafk of wine.---I fill'd a cup-Sos. He has hit it. MERC. Suck'd it down unmixt, and pure As from the mother it was born. Sos. O wonderful! He must have hid him in the cup.---'Tis fact: I drank a cup-full of fheer wine. MERC. What now? Have I convinc'd thee, that thou art not Sofa? MERC. Can I but deny it, 380 Sos. Do you deny it? When I am he? Sos. By Jupiter I fwear, I am, nor do I lye. MERC. I fwear by Mercury, Jupiter won't believe thee; for I know He'll fooner credit me without an oath Than with one he will thee. Sos. Tell me, at least Who am I, if fo be I am not Sofia? I ask you that. MERC. My pleasure when it is No longer to be Sofia, then be thou Sofia, and welcome. Now that I am he, 385 390 Begone, as thou would'ft 'fcape a drubbing.---Hence, Thou fellow ! Sos. Now I view him well, by heav'ns I see my very figure, such as I Have often seen it in a glafs.---'Tis certain, He's very like me.---The fame hat, fame coat--- 395 The shanks, feet, ftature, fhorn pate, eyes,nofe, teeth, V. 393. Thou fellow !] Ignobilis. 400 V. 396.]"He's damnably like me, that's certain. Imprimis, "there's a patch upon my nofe, with a pox to him.-Item, a very foolish face with a long chin at end on't.-Item, one pair of fhambling legs, with two fplay feet belonging to them. "And-fumma totalis, from head to foot all my bodily apparel." DRYDEN's Amphitryon. It is left to the reader's determination, whether the fimple and concise enumeration of particulars in the original has not more I ever was I know my mafter, know Our house and verily I have not loft My wits nor fenfes.---I'll not heed this fellow, Sos. Why, home. 405 MERC. Tho' thou wer't now To mount the car of Jove, and fly from hence, Sos. May I not Deliver master's meffage to my mistress? 410 MERC. To thine deliver what thou wilt, I care not: But I'll not fuffer thee t' approach our lady.--- Sos. I'll be gone rather.---Heav'ns have mercy on me ! Where did I lofe myself? where was I chang'd? 415 Of my whole image, which was mine before.--- 420[My ftatue is erected in my ftead:] real humour in it. The circumftance at the end "if his back "be fcar'd"-is highly in character for a flave Moliere has omitted the whole paffage here, and made a different use of it in A& II. Scene I. of this play. V. 421. This line, inclofed in crotchets, is conformable to the interpretation, which Douza gives of this paffage. See more of this in a Note to the Moftellaria of our Author, Act II. Scene I. What What never will be done when I am dead, But if he likewife know me not !---O Jupiter, 425 Grant that he may not:---fo fhall I directly Cover my fhorn crown with the cap of freedom... [Exit SOSIA SCENE II. MERCURY alone. Well!---our affair goes profperously on. What must his master think, but that he lies? 5 10 V. 427.] When a flave was made free, he had after his manumiffion his head fhaved, and a cap put on it, in the Temple of Feronia, who was the Goddess of Freedmen. Cooke from Servius. SCENE II.] This is palpably nothing more than a kind of continuation of the Prologue, as it is formally addreffed to the Spectators, in order to acquaint them with particulars, which, according to modern notions, it were better that they should not be informed of before-hand. E'en to fatiety.-Then all will know What has been done: my father in the end This ftrife my father will appeafe.-And now 15 20 I've faid but little,) fhe'll to-day bring forth 25 My father has provided these fhall both Be born together, that one painful labour May ferve for both, and that she might not fall 30 V. 23.] It can hardly be conceived, that any critic, however nice and refined, should fall into fo gross a mistake as to imagine, that the duration of the time of this piece must be seven months; because, according to the ancient ftory, Jupiter was three nights, or rather one night as long as three with Alcmena, in confequence of which Hercules was born feven months after. Yet Heinfius and Voffius (as Marolles obferves) both maintain this opinion. Their mistake palpably arofe from not confidering, that Plautus made ufe of the commonly received notion no farther than to accommodate it to the fubject of his piece, by fuppofing the fame circumftance to have been repeated on the night before the birth of Hercules. V. 24. The younger.] This is Hercules. The other of thefe twins was called Iphiclus. But |