Menaechmi

Menaechmi

May 16 - 17, 2008

Moschus, a merchant of Syracuse, had twin sons who were like as two peas. When the boys were seven years old, Moschus took one of them, Menaechmus, with him on a business trip to Tarentum. There the boy became separated from his father and lost in the crowd. He was found later and adopted by a wealthy merchant of Epidamnus. Meanwhile, so great was the grief of parents and grandparents for the lost boy that the remaining twin whose name was Sosicles was renamed Menaechmus. When the latter reached young manhood he set out with his slave, Messenio, to cover the known world in search of his twin. This masterpiece by Plautus is the basis of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors and the Rodgers and Hart musical The Boys from Syracuse.