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Andria is a Roman comedy adapted by Terence from two Greek plays by Menander the first being Samia and the other being Perinthia. It was the first play by Terence to be presented publicly, and was performed in 166 BC during the Ludi Megalenses.
Poenulus, also called The Little Carthaginian or The Little Punic Man, is a Latin comedic play for the early Roman theatre by Titus Maccius Plautus, probably written between 195 and 189 BC. The play is noteworthy for containing text in Carthaginian Punic, spoken by the character Hanno in the fifth act. Another remarkable feature is the sympathetic portrayal of the character of the Carthaginian Hanno at a time when only a few years previously the Romans had suffered huge losses in the 2nd Punic War fought against the Carthaginian general Hannibal.
Adelphoe is a play by Roman playwright Terence, adapted mostly from a play of the same name by Menander, with the addition of a scene from Diphilus. It was first performed in 160 BC at the funeral games of Aemilius Paulus. Exploring the best form of child-rearing, the play inspired Molière's The School for Husbands.
Eunuchus is a comedy written by the 2nd century BC Roman playwright Terence featuring a complex plot of rape and reconciliation. It was Terence's most successful play during his lifetime. Suetonius notes how the play was staged twice in a single day and won Terence 8,000 sesterces. The play is a loose translation of one written by Menander in Greek.
Mostellaria is a play by the Roman author Plautus. Its name translates from Latin as "The Ghost (play)". The play is believed to be an adaptation of a lost comedy of the Athenian poet Philemon called Phasma. It is set in a street in the city of Athens.
Casina is a Latin comedy or farce by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. Set in ancient Athens, the play describes how an Athenian gentleman and his son are both in love with the same slave-girl, Casina. The old man tries to conduct a secret affair with Casina by having her marry his farm-manager; but his plan is foiled by his wife, who dresses her son's armour-bearer up as the bride and sends him into the bridal chamber in place of Casina.
Bacchides is a Latin comedy by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. The title has been translated as The Bacchises, and the plot revolves around the misunderstandings surrounding two sisters, each called Bacchis, who work in a brothel. It includes Plautus' frequent theme of a clever servant outwitting his supposed superior to get money.
Amphitryon or Amphitruo is a Latin play for the early Roman theatre by playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. It is Plautus’s only play on a mythological subject. The play is mostly extant, but has a large missing section in its latter portion. The plot of the play involves Amphitryon’s jealous and confused reaction to Alcmena’s seduction by Jupiter, and ends with the birth of Hercules. There is a subplot in which Jupiter's son Mercury, keeping watch outside the house while his father is inside, has fun teasing first Amphitryon's servant Sosia, and then Amphitryon himself.
Miles Gloriosus is a comedic play written by Titus Maccius Plautus. The title can be translated as "The Swaggering Soldier" or "Vainglorious Soldier". His source for Miles Gloriosus was a Greek play, now lost, called Alazon or The Braggart. Although the characters in Miles Gloriosus speak Latin, they are Greeks and largely have Greek names, clothing, and customs. The action takes place in Ephesus, a Greek city on the coast of Asia Minor, famous for its Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
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Mercator, or The Merchant, is a Latin comedic play for the early Roman theatre by Titus Maccius Plautus. It is based on the Greek play Emporos by the Greek comedy playwright Philemon. It is believed to be among Plautus's first plays, possibly written around 206 BC. The central conflict involves a father who falls in love with a slave girl who is, unbeknownst to the father, his son's lover.
Epidicus is an ancient Roman comedy written by T. Maccius Plautus. It is said to have been one of Plautus's favorite works. Epidicus is the name of the main character, who is a slave. The plot takes many turns as Epidicus tries to please his master's son, Stratippocles.
Asinaria is a comic play written in Latin by the Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. In the play an Athenian gentleman, Demaenetus, tells his slave Libanus that he knows his son Argyrippus is having an affair with the prostitute Philaenium next door, and he asks him to try to find some money to pay for the affair. When by chance a stranger comes bringing money owed for some donkeys sold by Saurea, the steward of Demaenetus's wife, Libanus's fellow-slave Leonida pretends to be Saurea, and the two slaves trick the stranger into giving them the money. Argyrippus is given the money on condition that his father is to be allowed to enjoy the first night with the prostitute. But a jealous rival, Diabolus, snitches on Demaenetus to his wife Artemona, who storms to the brothel and prevents her husband from enjoying the girl as well.
Cistellaria is a comedic Latin play by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. The story, set in the Greek town of Sicyon, concerns a girl called Selenium who was exposed as a baby and brought up by a courtesan called Melaenis. By a happy chance it is discovered that her birth mother, married to a senator Demipho, lives next door, enabling her to marry the young man Alcesimarchus who loves her.
Stichus is a comedic Latin play by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. According to a notice transmitted with the play, Stichus was first performed in 200 BC. The same notice informs us that it was adapted from the play Adelphoe by Menander.
Persa is a comedic Latin play by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. Unusually in this play, the lover is not a wealthy young man helped by a cunning slave, but the cunning slave himself. In order to repay the money he has borrowed to buy his girlfriend from the pimp Dordalus who owns her, Toxilus persuades his friend Sagaristio to dress up as a Persian, in order to trick the pimp Dordalus into paying a large sum to buy a girl who is dressed as an Arabian captive, but who is in fact free. The girl's father Saturio then appears and reclaims his daughter.
Hecyra is a comedic Latin play by the early Roman playwright Terence. The story concerns a young man, Pamphilus, who has a girlfriend, the courtesan Bacchis, but is forced by his father to marry a neighbour's daughter Philumena. Before the wedding took place Philumena was raped by an unknown man. When a baby is born, Pamphilus at first disowns Philumena, but in the end it turns out that he himself is the father of the baby and husband and wife are reconciled. Much of the play deals with the distress which Pamphilus's behaviour causes himself and his own and Philumena's parents. A comedic element is provided by a lazy gossip-hungry slave, Parmeno, who is made to run around on errands and is kept in the dark about what is happening. The mother-in-law in the title is Pamphilus's mother Sostrata, who is falsely accused of unkindness towards Philumena; but Pamphilus's own mother-in-law Myrrina also has an important role.
Phormio is a Latin comic play by the early Roman playwright Terence, based on a now lost play by Apollodorus of Carystus entitled Epidikazomenos. It is generally believed to be Terence's fifth play. It was first performed at the Ludi Romani of 161 BC. Structurally, Phormio is considered to be one of the best Roman comedies.
Roman comedy is mainly represented by two playwrights, Plautus and Terence. The works of other Latin playwrights such as Livius Andronicus, Naevius, Ennius, and Caecilius Statius are now lost except for a few lines quoted in other authors. 20 plays of Plautus survive complete, and 6 of Terence.
Brevis brevians, also known as iambic shortening or correptio iambica, is a metrical feature of early Latin verse, especially Plautus and Terence, in which a pair of syllables which are theoretically short + long can be scanned as a pair of short syllables. The plural is breves breviantes.
References
- ↑ Paul L. MacKendrick, Herbert M. Howe, Classics in Translation, Volume II,1959, "" May 11, 2011
- ↑ Modern Durrës
- ↑ Merrill, F. R. (1972). Titi Macci Plauti Mostellaria, p. xix.
- ↑ Moore, Timothy J. (2012), Music in Roman Comedy. Cambridge University Press, pp. 237-42, 253-8, 305-8, 367-71.
- ↑ Marshall, C. W. (2006). The Stagecraft of Roman Comedy (Cambridge University Press), p. 210.
- ↑ T. J. Moore (2012), Music in Roman Comedy, pp. 238–240.
- ↑ T. J. Moore (2012), Music in Roman Comedy, p. 258.
- ↑ Olive Classe, editor, Encyclopedia of Literary Translation, 2000, p. 1266
- ↑ "Double-Trouble | Richard Mohaupt". www.wisemusicclassical.com.
- ↑ Another (?) Shakespeare Allusion on JSTOR and Encyclopedia of Literary Translation Into English: A-L
- ↑ Plautus; Translated by Wolfgang de Melo (2011). Plautus, Vol II: Casina; The Casket Comedy; Curculio; Epidicus; The Two Menaechmuses. Loeb Classical Library. ISBN 978-0674996786.
