_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? _Merc._ What a wise man should, that has respect for his own person. I ran into our tent, and hid myself amongst the baggage. _Sos._ [_Aside._] Such another cutting answer; and I must provide myself of another name.--[_To him._] And how did you pass your time in that same tent? You need not answer to every circumstance so exactly now; you must lie a little, that I may think you the more me. _Merc._ That cunning shall not serve your turn, to circumvent me out of my name: I am for plain naked truth. There stood a hogshead of old wine, which my lord reserved for his own drinking---- _Sos._ [_Aside._] O the devil! as sure as death, he must have hid himself in that hogshead, or he could never have known that! _Merc._ And by that hogshead, upon the ground, there lay the kind inviter and provoker of good drinking---- _Sos._ Nay, now I have caught you; there was neither inviter, nor provoker, for I was all alone. _Merc._ A lusty gammon of---- _Sos._ [_Sighing._] Bacon!--that word has quite made an end of me.--Let me see--this must be I, in spite of me; but let me view him nearer. [_Walks about_ MERCURY _with his Dark Lanthorn_. _Merc._ What are you walking about me for, with your dark lanthorn?