May use me as you please, and as it suits you;
But as I've told you the plain fact, you cannot
Make me recant my story.

AMPH. Why, you villain,--. 10

Dare you affirm, that you are now at home,

And here too, at this very time?

Sos. 'Tis true though.

AMPH. A plague confound you!--which the Gods

will order,

'And fo will I.

Sos. I'm your's, and in your power.

AMPH, Slave! dare you put your tricks upon your

mafter?

Dare you affirm, what man yet never faw ?---
What never can be ?---that the self-fame perfon
Should at one time be in two different places?
Sos. Indeed, 'tis fact I tell you.

15

AMPH. Jove confound you! Sos. In what have I deferv'd ill at your hands? 20 AMPH. Villain, d'ye afk, who make me thus your

fport?

Sos. With reafon you might curfe me, were't not fo: I do not lye, but tell you the plain fact. AMPH. The fellow's drunk, I think.

Sos. I have told your

Ten times already.---I'm at home, I say ;

And I,---d'ye mark me? I, that felf-fame Sofia,
Am here with you.---What think you? do I speak 30
Plain enough now, and to the purpofe?

AMPH. But I fhall make you

Feel very ill, and very miferable,

35

As you deserve, when I get home.---Come, follow me,
You, who abuse your master's easy nature
With vain and frantic ftories; who, because
You have neglected to perform his orders,
Come to deride him.--You relate such grofs
Impoffibilities, fuch as before

Were never heard of---Knave !---But ev'ry lye

Your back fhall answer.

Sos. Of all grievances

This is moft grievous to a trusty servant;

40

That, though he tell his mafter truth, the truth 45

He is beat out of by authority.

AMPH. How this can be, convince me, thou vile

plague,

With arguments.---I fain would have explain'd,

How you can be at home, and yet be here.

Sos. Troth I'm both here and there.---Well may

one wonder !

50

Nor

Nor can it seem more strange to you than me.
AMPH. As how?

55

Sos. I fay, it cannot feem more strange
To you than me; nor, as I hope for mercy,
Did I at first believe Me-Myfelf Sofia,
Till Sofia, t'other I-Myfelf, convinc'd me.
He told diftinctly ev'ry thing that past
During our fojourn with the enemy :---
Then he has robb'd me of my very figure
Together with my name.---One drop of milk
Is not more like another than that I

Is like to Me: for when you fent me home,
Before 'twas day-break, from the port---

69

AMPH. What then? Sos. I at the door was standing long before

I came there.

AMPH. Plague! what trifling ftuff is this?

Have you your senses?

Sos. I am as you fee me.

65

AMPH. Sure, fince he left me, he has been bewitch'd, And work'd on by ill hands.

Sos. Ill hands, I own;

For he has maul'd me with his fifts most fadly,

V. 57.-Work'd on by ill hands. Sos. Ill hands, I own,]

Huic bomini nefcio quid eft mali malá objectum manu.
Sos. Fateor; nam fum obtufus pugnis peffumè.

Mala manus, in the original, alludes to Sorcery, which gives a fair opportunity for Sofia to pun upon it. Turnebus, as quoted by Cooke, finds out a particular beauty in it; for he fuppofes, that the particular Sorcery is defigned, which was practised by herbs,. in which manual operation is more required than in charms by the incantation of verfe. Agreeably to this refinement on our Author we must fuppofe, that obtufus pugnis fignifies pounded: but

this

AMPH. Who beat

you ?

Sos. I-Myfélf beat Me-myself,

I that am now at home.

AMPH. Be fure you anfwer

Nothing but what I ask you.---First of all,
I willingly would learn, who is that Sofia?

70

this expreffion is ufed by him generally, where no particular allufion can be fuppofed.

V. 69. I-myfelf beat Me-myfelf.] The English Idiom exactly anfwers to the Latin in this particular expreffion of Egomet and Memet; and I cannot help thinking it more forcible in either language than the plain pronoun I or Ego. It is remarkable, that throughout this scene we find it frequently ufed in this manner. Dryden was not aware of this,' who makes Sofia fay, "I beat Me." But indeed in this, and throughout the whole fcene, he only tranflates Moliere almost literally.

It is but too common, in all imitations, where the circumftance is of itself comic, to endeavour to heighten it by throw ing in unneceffary additions in the expreffion. The fimplicity of Plautus is, in this fcene particularly, frittered away by Maliere; and Dryden followed him fo closely, that he forgot himself. He has even copied from the Frenchman the defcription which Sofia gives of his perfon, as he saw it in Mercury, though directly the oppofite of what our countryman had given us of it from himself, as may be seen in the Note on V. 405of Act I. Scene I. of this play. "I viewed myself, as in a mirror, from head to foot. He was handfome, of a noble 66 air, loose and free in all his motions." Dryden.

Des piés, jufqu'à la tête, il eft comme moi fait;
Beau, l'air noble, bien pris, les manières charmantes.

MOLFERE.

Compare this with the quotation from Dryden in the abovementioned Note.

If our Author is to be blamed for fome wretched puns, what muft we think of the following in Dryden? He makes Sofia fay, -"That there was two I's, is as certain, as that I have t

66

Eyes in this head of mine."

SoSt

Sos. Your fervant.

AMPH. In good footh I have one more

By you, than I could wish; nor ever had I,
Since I was born, another fervant Sofia

Befides yourself.

Sos. But I do tell you now,

You'll find, when you go home, another Sofia
Befides myself; the son of Davus; sprung --
From the fame father as myfelf; in form,
And age, the fame too with myself. In fhort,
You've here a double Sofia.

AMPH. Your account

75

-80

Is wondrous ftrange !---But have you feen my wife? Sos. He would not let me come within the door.

AMPH. Who hinder'd you?

Sos. That Sofia, He I fpoke of,

"Who maul'd me with his fifts.

AMPH. Who is that Sofia? 85

Sos. Myfelf, 1 fay :--how often must I tell you ? AMPH. But what is't you are talking ?---Have you

not

Been fleeping all the while?

Sos. No, not the least.

AмPн. Haply you faw, if any fuch you saw,

That Sofia in a dream.

Sos. I am not wont

90

To dream o'er your commands.---Awake I faw him;

Awake I fee you now; awake I'm talking;

And with his fists just now did He awake

Maul Me awake.

AMPH. What He?

Sos. I tell you, Sofia,

That