Menaecmi. A Pleasant and Fine Conceited Comædie, taken out of the most excellent wittie Poet Plautus

On 25 January 1486 in Ferrara, Duke Ercole I offered carnival entertainments in honor of Francesco Gonzaga, betrothed to Isabella d'Este. Among many events, a staging is recorded of Plautus' Menaechmi. This is the first staging of the play of which we know in modern Europe, and it is a crucial moment in the history of the reception of Roman and Plautine comedy. As a matter of fact, Menaechmi was destined to become one of the most popular — if not the most popular — ancient comedy in Europe's courts and stages between 15^th and 16^th century (on the success of Menaechmi in early modern Europe, see esp. Hardin 2003-2004). Only two years after the staging in Ferrara, a Latin performance of the comedy was put up in Florence before Lorenzo de' Medici (with a verse prologue by Angelo Poliziano); in 1491, it was played in Milan, for the marriage of Alfonso d'Este and Anna Sforza; in 1511, Pope Julius II had it performed for his hostage Federico Gonzaga. 

Based on the most typical of identity exchanges, Menaechmi features two identical twins, both called Menaechmus (in truth, one was called Sosicles, but after his brother's alleged demise he was renamed after him). One of the two twins was kidnapped as a kid and then considered dead, but after several years the two meet again by hazard in Epidamnus. A number of funny misunderstandings spark from this situation, until Messenio, Sosicles' slave, prompts the two brothers' agnition (for a reading in the original, see e.g. Gratwick 1993; Raffaelli and Tontini 2007).

Perhaps it was because of the identity exchange and the final recognition that the play enthralled modern audiences. Be that as it may, already by around 1500 several vernacular translations existed of the Latin original: Ludovico Ariosto, for instance, made one (now lost); other translations produced in Italy are those by Albertino Pavese and Bartolomeo Bagattello and by Niccolò da Correggio (see Uberti 1985). The comedy was also translated into German by Albrecht von Eyb, a student of Balthazar Rasinus, one of Plautus' earliest humanist promoters. The play would then become the main source for tens of rewritings and original new plays. Plautus is clearly on the background of Ariosto's La Cassaria (1508) and I Suppositi (1528-1532, translated into English by George Gascoigne in 1566). In addition to Ariosto, in the earlier sixteenth century Menaechmi certainly had an impact on the anonymous Gl'Ingannati, on Bernardo Dovizi's La Calandra, on Gian Giorgio Trissino's I simillimi and Agnolo Firenzuola's I Lucidi. Gl'Ingannati would then enjoy a huge success all over Europe, leaving traces onto several vernacular comedies: in France, Le Sacrifice (1543); in Spain, the Comedia de Sepúlveda (1547), Los Engañados (1556), and La Española de Florencia; in England, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (1602; see Gay 2003²: 4-5).

In sum, Plautus and his Menaechmi played a crucial role in early modern Europe's theatrical culture. England was, partially, an exception. This is particularly true for printed editions, or translations, a fielf in which Terence held an actual monopoly (Smith 2015: 399). Whereas Terence was edited and translated at a very early stage (the first excerpts were published in 1483, and a full edition in 1495-1497), Plautus had to wait much longer: no Latin edition was printed in England until 1711. Likewise, while the earliest complete English translation of a comedy by Terence dates back to 1520 (Andria), the first translation of Plautus is that of Menaechmi in 1595 – that is, more than a century after the performance in Ferrara, and several decades after most vernacular rewritings of the play.

As was rightly pointed out, performance was a different story (Franko 2020). Attending to our records (which are of course ephemeral, and thus not completely reliable), in 16^th century plays by Plautus were performed more often than those by Terence and Seneca, especially in universities. As early as 1520, Cardinal Wolsely promoted the performance of a Plautine comedy before Henry VIII (see Smith 1988), and in 1526 Menaechmi was staged at Hampton Court.

However, the relative scarcity of the reception of Plautus in England deserves an explanation. The most probable reason for a lack of interest in Plautus are moral concerns (thus McPherson 1981; Hardin 2018). Plays by Terence must have certainly looked more suitable for students than those by Plautus. Evidence for this assumption comes directly from the 1595 translation of Plautus' Menaechmi. In the preface to the readers, the translator admits that, despite having worked on several Plautine translations, he has chosen to publish only that of Menaechmi since its "mirth" is "harmlesse". The title itself reiterates the concept: Menaechmi was "chosen purposely from out the rest, as least harmefull, and yet most delightfull".

The 1595 translation, by one "W.W." (usually identified as the poet William Warner, the author of Syrinx), is a quite literal prose version of Plautus' original. The printer's preface is to be trusted only in part:

And although I found him (sc. the translator) very loath and unwilling to hazard this to the curious view of envious detraction, (being as the tels mee) neither so exactly written, as it may carry any name of a Translation, nor such liberties therin used, as that he would notoriously varie from the Poets owne order: yet sith it is onely a matter of meriment, and the litle alteration therof, can breede no detriment of importance, I have over-rulde him so farre, as to let this be offered to your courteous acceptance ...

W.W.'s translation certainly does not use many liberties, and cannot be called a rewriting: only in few places does it vary the original, and in fact it usually offers a quite close English version of the Latin text. Moreover, W.W. uses a symbol (*) to attract the reader's attention whenever he inserts a line that cannot be found in the original. Such insertions are relatively few, and not decisive on the whole – mostly, they are used when W.W. finds it impossible to translate for an English audience specific references to Plautus' own socio-historical context.

Menaechmi was acknowledged as the basis for Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors already by contemporary eyewitnesses (see Franko 2020: 452). Shakespeare's play was likely composed in "the latter part of 1594" (on the chronology, see Whitworth 2003: 1-10). Since W.W.'s translation was entered in the Register of the Stationers Company on 10 June 1594, it is possible that Shakespeare had the opportunity to see a manuscript version of the text before its publication. However, it cannot be ruled out that Shakespeare knew Plautus' comedy from the original. 

Cheney, Patrick and Hardy, Philip eds. 2015. The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature. Vol. 2: 1558-1660. Oxford: OUP.

Franko, George Fredric and Dutsch, Dorota eds. 2020. A Companion to Plautus. London: Wiley.

Franko, George Fredric. 2020. "Plautus in Early Modern England". In Franko and Dutsch 2020: 445-59.

Gay, Penny. 2003². "Introduction". In Story Donno 2003²: 1-54.

Gratwick, A.S. ed. 1993. Plautus. Menaechmi. Cambridge: CUP.

Hardin, Richard F. 2003-2004. "Menaechmi and the Renaissance of Comedy". Comparative Drama 37: 255-74.

Hardin, Richard F. 2018. Plautus and the English Renaissance of Comedy. Lanham, MD: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.

McPherson, David. 1981. "Roman comedy in Renaissance education: the moral question". Sixteenth Century Journal 12: 19-30.

Raffaelli, Renato and Tontini, Alba eds. 2007. Lecturae Plautinae Sarsinates. X: Menaechmi. Urbino: QuattroVenti.

Smith, Bruce R. 1988. Ancient Scripts and Modern Experience on the English Stage 1500-1700. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Smith, Bruce R. 2015. "Comedy". In Cheney and Hardy 2015: 395-417.

Story Donno, Elizabeth ed. 2003². William Shakespeare. Twelfth Night. Cambridge: CUP.

Uberti, Maria Luisa ed. 1985. Il Menechini di Plauto. Volgarizzamenti rinascimentali. Ravenna: Longo.

Whitworth, Charles ed. 2003. William Shakespeare. The Comedy of Errors. Oxford: OUP.

The volume of Menaecmi. A Pleasant and Fine Conceited Comædie, taken out of the most excellent wittie Poet Plautus (translated by one W.W., perhaps William Warner) is in quarto and consists of 42 pages. It is held at the Huntington Library.

The frontispiece reads: 

Menaecmi A pleasant and fine conceited comædie, taken out of the most excellent wittie poet Plautus: chosen purposely from out the rest, as least harmefull, and yet most delightfull. Written in English, by VV.VV.

LONDON

Printed by Tho. Creede, and are to be sold by William Barly, at his shop in Gratious streete.

1595

At bottom of page, the volume has signatures, starting from A³ and going to F¹.

The printer's preface to the readers, the argument, Latin and Greek names are in italics. There are no manuscripts notes. Inking defects can be found at E¹r-v, E⁴v. On the frontispiece, under the title, an emblem can be found with the drawing of a naked figure and the motto "Viressit Vulnere Veritas". The volume has ornaments at A³r-v, A⁴r and F¹v, and intricate initials at A³r and A⁴r-v.

The EEBO bibliographical number is Greg, I, 135; STC (2nd ed.) / 20002.

English: Plautus Menaechmi
Latin: Plautus Menaechmi