Mercator, or The Merchant, is a Latin comedic play

Play (theatre)

A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...

 for the early Roman theatre

Theatre of ancient Rome

The theatre of ancient Rome was a thriving and diverse art form, ranging from festival performances of street theatre, nude dancing, and acrobatics, to the staging of Plautus's broadly appealing situation comedies, to the high-style, verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca...

 by Titus Maccius Plautus. It is based on a Greek play

Theatre of Ancient Greece

The theatre of Ancient Greece, or ancient Greek drama, is a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece between c. 550 and c. 220 BC. The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political and military power during this period, was its centre, where it was...

 by the playwright Philemon

Philemon

Philemon may refer to:Arts and literature:* Philemon , the recipient of Saint Paul's Epistle to Philemon* Baucis and Philemon, the couple from the Metamorphoses of Greek mythology...

.

Plot

A young man Charinus has fallen in love with Pasicompsa while on a business trip for his father, and he brings her back to Athens. Charinus' father Demipho shows up at the boat while it's still in the harbor with Pasicompsa on board, and Charinus is away. To explain the girl's presence, Acanthio, a slave of Charinus, makes up a story that Charinus bought her to be a slave for his mother.

Demipho falls for the girl as well and hatches a plot to get her for himself. He comes across his son and argues that he needs to sell the girl. Charinus has his friend Eutychus bid on the girl, however Demipho has his friend Lysimachus, the father of Eutychus, get the girl first. Upon hearing the news of Eutychus' failure, Charinus is distraught and considers leaving the country for good.

Meanwhile, Lysimachus takes Pasicompsa home with him temporarily until Demipho can arrange a better place for her to stay. Lysimachus' wife discovers the girl, and thinking Lysimachus is cheating on her, confronts her husband. Soon Eutychus discovers that Pasicompsa is at his house and brings Charinus. When Demipho discovers his son is in love with the girl, he gives up his attempt to obtain her for himself and Charinus gets her in the end.

Translations

• Henry Thomas Riley, 1912: Mercator full text
• Paul Nixon, 1916-38
• Charles T. Murphy, 1942
• George Garrett
  George Garrett (poet)
  George Palmer Garrett. was an American poet and novelist. He was the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2002 to 2006. His novels include The Finished Man, Double Vision, and the Elizabethan Trilogy, composed of Death of the Fox, The Succession, and Entered from the Sun...
  
  , 1995