Roche's translations of Amphitryon, Miles Gloriosus, and The Prisoners clearly illustrate how Plautus' writing has withstood the test of time. Includes an analysis of Plautus' approach to comedy and background on the social and political customs of his times.

This is the first edition of Platus' Amphitruo to appear in English for approximately forty years. It contains introductory essays, Latin text and a line-by-line commentary. Students will find this an indispensable tool in reading and translating the play, which was enormously popular in antiquity and has inspired modern adaptations by Molière, Giraudoux and Harold Pinter, among others. Dr. Christenson makes use of both current critical approaches to theater and traditional classical scholarship to offer many new insights into this delightful comedy.

Originally published in 1919 as part of the Pitt Press series, this book contains an edited edition of the Latin text of Plautus' comedy Menaechmi. Knight provides an introduction on the origin and legacy of the play, as well as remarks on Plautus' style and use of metre. Critical notes are also supplied at the end. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Roman comedy and the works of Plautus.

Originally published in 1924 as part of the Pitt Press Series, and intended for pre-university students, this book contains the Latin text of extracts from the works of the Roman comic Plautus. The selections are prefaced with an introduction on the playwright's life, and are accompanied by notes on the text and an appendix on the poetic metres used in the extracts. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Plautus or the history of classical education.

The rollicking comedies of Plautus, who brilliantly adapted Greek plays for Roman audiences c. 205--184 bce, are the earliest Latin works to survive complete and are cornerstones of the European theatrical tradition from Shakespeare and Moliere to modern times. This fifth volume of a new Loeb edition of all twenty-one of Plautus's extant comedies presents Stichus, Three-Dollar Day, Truculentus, The Tale of a Traveling-Bag, and fragments with freshly edited texts, lively modern translations, introductions, and ample explanatory notes."

Plautus' comedy Menaechmi was the main inspiration for Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors. In this edition Dr. Gratwick provides a newly constituted text, a commentary for students giving help with language and context, and an introduction that sheds new light on the interpretation of the play and on Plautus' place in the development of European comedy. Central to Dr. Gratwick's treatment is an analysis of the various meters employed by Plautus, which challenges many conventional views but also offers the student practical assistance with the technical problems involved.

The rollicking comedies of Plautus, who brilliantly adapted Greek plays for Roman audiences c. 205-184 bc, are the earliest Latin works to survive complete and are cornerstones of the European theatrical tradition from Shakespeare and Moliere to modern times. This fourth volume of a new Loeb edition of all twenty-one of Plautus's extant comedies presents The Little Carthaginian, Pseudolus, and The Rope with freshly edited texts, lively modern translations, introductions, and ample explanatory notes.

The rollicking comedies of Plautus, who brilliantly adapted Greek plays for Roman audiences c. 205 184 BCE, are the earliest Latin works to survive complete and are cornerstones of the European theatrical tradition from Shakespeare and Moliere to modern times. This second volume of a new Loeb edition of all twenty-one of Plautus s extant comedies presents "Casina, Cistellaria, Curculio, Epidicus, "and" Menaechmi "with freshly edited texts, lively modern translations, introductions, and ample explanatory notes.

Plautus' Casina is a lively and well composed farce. The plot, which concerns the competition of a father and his son for the same girl and the various scurrilous tricks employed in the process, gives full scope to Plautus' inventiveness and richly comic language. The editors' aim is to establish the play as one of the liveliest of ancient comedies, and in their introduction and notes to make the reader continually aware of the conditions of an actual stage performance. They discuss the background and conventions of Roman comedy and by offering a complete metrical analysis they help the reader to appreciate the original musical structure of the play. The edition is intended primarily for use by students at school and university but will be of value to anyone interested in reading the play in the original.

The rollicking comedies of Plautus, who brilliantly adapted Greek plays for Roman audiences c. 205-184 BCE, are the earliest Latin works to survive complete and are cornerstones of the European theatrical tradition from Shakespeare and Moliere to modern times. This first volume of a new Loeb edition of all 21 of Plautus's extant comedies presents Amphitruo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, and Captivi with freshly edited texts, lively modern translations, and ample explanatory notes. Accompanying the plays is a detailed introduction to Plautus's oeuvre as a whole, discussing his techniques of translation and adaptation, his use of Roman humor, stage conventions, language and meter, and his impact on the Greco-Roman comedic theater and beyond.

The rollicking comedies of Plautus, who brilliantly adapted Greek plays for Roman audiences c. 205 184 BCE, are the earliest Latin works to survive complete and are cornerstones of the European theatrical tradition from Shakespeare and Moliere to modern times. This third volume of a new Loeb edition of all twenty-one of Plautus s extant comedies presents "The Merchant," "The Braggart Soldier," "The Ghost," and "The Persian "with freshly edited texts, lively modern translations, introductions, and ample explanatory notes.

The ideal single-volume introduction to the greatest masterpieces of ancient comedy
From the fifth to the second century B.C., theatrical comedy flourished in Greece and Rome. This new anthology brings together four essential masterworks of the genre: Aristophanes? bold, imaginative "The Birds"; Menander's "The Girl from Samos," which explores popular contemporary themes of mistaken identity and sexual misbehavior; and two later Roman comic plays?Plautus's "The Brothers Menaechmus," the inspiration for Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors"; and Terence's bawdy yet sophisticated double love plot, "The Eunuch." Together, these four plays capture the genius of classical comedy for students, theatergoers, actors, lovers of satire, and anyone interested in the ancient world.

A major comic artist in Republican Rome, Plautus left a legacy of twenty extremely inventive comedies. Ostensibly Latin versions of Greek plays staged in Athens several generations earlier, they display an exuberance and zany sense of humor that are distinctly Roman. Peter L. Smith here offers lively and colloquial English verse translations of three plays: Miles Gloriosus (The Braggart Warrior), Pseudolus (The Cheat), and Rudens (The Rope). In their quality and variety, the three plays represent an ideal sampling of Plautus' work, and the translations themselves are meant to be enjoyed as living theater.

Miles Gloriosus is a comic assault on human vanity and self-importance, as manifested in the persona of an absurdly swaggering military officer. Pseudolus features a scheming slave of quick wit and fertile imagination, who assists his well-born but dim-witted young master in pursuing a seemingly hopeless love affair. Rudens is a romantic comedy set on the North African coast, in which a pathetic young woman (kidnapped in infancy) survives a shipwreck, escapes the clutches of a villainous pimp, and discovers her parents.

Smith has written a substantial general introduction on the background of ancient Roman comedy, including various aspects of theater production, and brief critical essays introducing the plays. Notes and bibliographical information are also included.

Although Plautus created popular entertainment for a general audience, he was a literary artist of remarkable dexterity. His plays have become classics of the Western tradition, and their direct influence has extended from Shakespeare and Moliere through Stephen Sondheim. These masterly new translations will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in the development of comedy and in classical drama and its performance.

This modern translation presents, in a form suitable for the modern stage, The Ghost (Mostellaria), The Rope (Rudens), A Three-Dollar Day (Trinummus), and Amphitruo.

"The works of Plautus," writes Palmer Bovie, "mark the real beginning of Roman literature." Now Bovie and David Slavitt have brought together a distinguished group of translators for the final two volumes of a four-volume set containing all twenty-one surviving comedies of one of Western literature's greatest dramatists.

Born in Sarsina, Umbria, in 254 B.C., Plautus is said to have worked in Rome as a stage carpenter and later as a miller's helper. Whether authentic or not, these few details about the playwright's life are consistent with the image of him one might infer from his plays. Plautus was not "literary" but rather an energetic and resourceful man of the world who spoke the language of the people. His dramatic works were his way of describing and portraying that world in a language the people understood.

Since Plautus's career unfolded against the background of the Second Punic War, it is not surprising that his prologues often end with a wish for the audience's "good luck against your enemies" or that the plays have their share of arrogant generals, boastful military captains, and mercenary adventurers. But other unforgettable characters are here as well -- among them Euclio, in the Aulularia, the model for Molire's miser. In these lively new translations, which effectively communicate the vitality and verve of the originals, the plays of Plautus are accessible to a new generation.

Plays and translators:

Volume 4: Persa, Palmer Bovie. Menaechmi, Palmer Bovie. Cistellaria, R. H. W. Dillard. Pseudolus, Richard Beacham. Stichus, Carol Poster. Vidularia, John Wright.