Merc. Davus; who was an honest husbandman, whose sister's name was Harpage, that was married, and died in a foreign country.
Sos. So far you are right, I must confess; and your wife's name is——
Merc. Bromia, a devilish shrew of her tongue, and a vixen of her hands, that leads me a miserable life; keeps me to hard duty a-bed; and beats me every morning when I have risen from her side, without having first——
Sos. I understand you, by many a sorrowful token;—this must be I. [Aside.
Merc. I was once taken upon suspicion of burglary, and was whipt through Thebes, and branded for my pains.
Sos. Right, me again; but if you are I, as I begin to suspect, that whipping and branding might have been past over in silence, for both our credits. And yet now I think on't, if I am I, (as I am I) he cannot be I. All these circumstances he might have heard; but I will now interrogate him upon some private passages.—What was the present that Amphitryon sent by you or me, no matter which of us, to his wife Alcmena?
Merc. A buckle of diamonds, consisting of five large stones.
Sos. And where are they now?
Merc. In a case, sealed with my master's coat of arms.
Sos. This is prodigious, I confess; but yet 'tis nothing, now I think on't; for some false brother may have revealed it to him. [Aside.] But I have another question to ask you, of somewhat that passed only betwixt myself and me;—if you are Sosia, what were you doing in the heat of battle?