MERC. So, I shall break our truce, and take back my word.

SOS. I can't help it. I cannot annihilate myself for you, and endure
so improbable a tale. Is it in your power to be what I am? Can I
cease to be myself? Did any one ever hear of such a thing? And can
you give the lie to a hundred clear indications? Do I dream? Do I
sleep? Is my mind troubled by powerful transports? Do I not feel I
am awake? Am I not in my right senses? Has not my master,
Amphitryon, commanded me to come here to Alcmene his wife? Am I not,
in commending his passion to her, to give her an account of his
deeds against our enemies? Have I not just come from the harbour? Do
I not hold a lantern in my hand? Have I not found you in front of
our house? Did I not speak to you in a perfectly friendly manner? Do
you not make use of my poltroonery to hinder me from entering our
house? Have you not vented your rage upon my back? Have you not
showered blows on me? Ah! All this is but too true: would to Heaven
it were less real! Cease therefore to jeer at a wretch's lot, and
leave me to acquit myself where my duty calls me.

MERC. Stop, or the shortest step brings down upon your back
clattering evidence of my just anger. All you have just said is
mine, except the blows. It is I, whom Amphitryon sent to Alcmene;
who has just arrived from the Persian port; I, who have come to
announce the valour of his arm, which has gained us a glorious
victory, and slain the chief of our enemies. In short, I am
undoubtedly Sosie, son of Dave, an honest shepherd; brother of
Arpage, who died in a foreign land; husband of Cleanthis the prude,
whose temper drives me wild; I, who received a thousand cuts from a
whip at Thebes, without ever saying anything about it; and who was
once publicly branded on the back for being too worthy a man.