Perde 4
[Textpart 2]
Inasmuch as you are not at all ashamed, and don’t wish to confess of your own accord, listen, and attend to this; I’ll both let you know why I’m sorrowful, and what he has told me.
THE WIFE OF MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus.
My mantle has been purloined from me at home.
645
MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus.
Mantle purloined from me?
645
PENICULUS
D’you see how the rogue is catching you up? (To MENAECHMUS.) It was purloined from her, not from you; for certainly if it had been purloined from you, it would now be safe.
MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus.
I’ve nothing to do with you. But (to his WIFE) what is it you say?
THE WIFE OF MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus.
A mantle, I say, has been lost from home.
MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus.
Who has stolen it?
THE WIFE OF MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus.
I faith, he knows that, who took it away.
MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus.
What person was it?
650
THE WIFE OF MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus.
A certain Menaechmus.
650
MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus.
By my troth, ’twas villanously done. Who is this Menaechmus?
650
THE WIFE OF MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus.
You are he, I say.
MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus.
I?
THE WIFE OF MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus.
You.
MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus.
Who accuses me?
THE WIFE OF MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus.
I, myself.
PENICULUS
I, too; and you carried it off to Erotium here, your mistress.
MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus.
I, gave it her?
PENICULUS
You, you, I say. Do you wish for an owl Wish for an owl: Tu, tu. He alludes to the note of the owl which to the Romans would seem to say tu, tu you you. to be brought here, to say you, you, continually to you? For we are now quite tired of it.
MENAECHMUS of Epidamnus.
By Jupiter and all the Gods, I swear, wife (and isn’t that enough for you?), that I did not give it.
655
