The Story Archive

The Menaechmi

Plautus · c. 200 BCE · Play · Roman · Classical

Twin brothers separated in childhood grow up in different cities, and the searching twin reaches Epidamnus on the very day his settled brother has stolen his wife's cloak to give to a courtesan. Wife, mistress, cook, parasite and doctor all meet the wrong twin and go on as though the day's arrangements still hold, until each brother concludes the town is mad. The fullest surviving Roman farce of doubles, and the plot Shakespeare would later double again.

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