on my hat:  yes, and as for my father he will have a little gold tassel hanging from his:  Amphitryon will not have this mark.  They are marks that none of the household here will be able to see, but you will.

sed Amphitruonis illic est servos Sosia:  a portu illic nunc cum lanterna advenit. abigam iam ego illum advenientem ab aedibus. 150 adeste:  erit operae pretium hic spectantibus Iovem et Mercurium facere histrioniam.

(looking down street) But there is Amphitryon’s servant Sosia—­just coming from the harbour with a lantern.  I’ll bustle him away from the house as soon as he gets here.  Watch now!  It will be worth your while to attend when Jove and Mercury take up the histrionic art. (steps aside)

ACTVS I

    ACT I

    (Time, night.)

  Sos.

Qui me alter est audacior homo aut qui confidentior, iuventutis mores qui sciam, qui hoc noctis solus ambulem? quid faciam nunc, si tres viri me in carcerem compegerint? inde cras quasi e promptaria cella depromar ad flagrum, nec causam liceat dicere mihi, neque in ero quicquam auxili nec quisquam sit quin me malo omnes esse dignum deputent.

      ENTER Sosia, LANTERN IN HAND.

(stopping and peering around timorously) Who’s a bolder man, a more audacious man than I am—­know all about the young bloods and their capers, I do, yet here I am strolling around all alone at this time of night! (seems to hear something and jumps) What if the police should lock me up in jail?  To-morrow I should be taken out of that preserve closet and get served—­to a rope’s end; and not a word would they let me say for myself,[C] and not a bit of help could I get from master, and there wouldn’t be a soul but what would reckon I deserved a hiding.

        [Footnote C:  Being a slave]

ita quasi incudem me miserum homines octo validi caedant:  159-160 ita peregre adveniens hospitio publicitus accipiar. 161-162 haec eri immodestia coegit, me qui hoc noctis a portu ingratiis excitavit. nonne idem hoc luci me mittere potuit?

Those eight strong wardens would pound my poor carcass just as if I was an anvil:  that is how I should be entertained on coming home from abroad—­a public reception. (disgustedly) It’s master’s impatience forced me into this, routing me out from the harbour at this time of night, against my will.  Might have sent me on the same errand by daylight, mightn’t he?

opulento homini hoc servitus dura est, hoc magis miser est divitis servos noctesque diesque assiduo satis superque est, quod facto aut dicto adeost opus, quietus ne sis.

This is where it comes hard slaving it for a nabob, this is where a plutocrat’s servant is worse off—­night and day there’s