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One of the supreme comic writers of the Roman world, Plautus (c.254-184 BC) skilfully adapted classic Greek comic models to the manners and customs of his day. This collection features a varied selection of his finest plays, from the light-hearted comedy "Pseudolus", in which the lovesick Calidorus and his slave try to liberate his lover from her pimp, to the more subversive "The Prisoners", which raises serious questions about the role of slavery. Also included in this title are "The Brothers Menaechmus", which formed the prototype for Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors", and "The Pot of Gold", whose old miser Euclio is a glorious study in avarice. Throughout, Plautus breathes new, brilliant life into classic comic types - including deceitful twins, scheming slaves, bitter old men and swaggering soldiers - creating an entertaining critique of Roman life and values. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Wonderful Plays!
Plautus was an extraordinary Roman comic playwright. He adapted Greek comedy to Roman tastes and the Latin language. Like Shakespeare, who borrowed greatly from him, Plautus writes on both a pratfall/slapstick level and on a witty wordplay level. This author is guaranteed entertainment, and this is a very good translation. Still don't believe me? Just remember that Plautus' work was the basis for "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum."

Slice-of-life ancient history
I agree with another reviewer that this collection of plays makes a good history lesson, but for me the lesson went beyond the development of people's sense of humor over time.Plautus avoids philosophy and politics, skipping right to slice-of-life stories about ordinary people, stories that today would be considered situation comedies.(Several of the plays in this book were amalgamated into the modern-day musical "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.")Reading this book gave me a sense of what life on the streets of ancient Rome was like.

A final comment about whether Plautus should be considered Greek or Roman.Plautus wrote in Rome more than 200 years after the classical Greek playrights Aeschylus, Euripides and Aristophanes and more than 100 years after the "new comedy" of the Greek Menander.He borrowed Greek plots and set his own plays in Greece, but I regard this as a convention (much as 20th century playwrights habitually set theirs in New York City) and to me the attitudes of Plautus' characters seem Roman more than Greek.

A History Lesson in Funny
Plautus is an important Roman comedian, because he preserves Greek works (The Swaggering Soldier is a re-telling of a lost Greek play, Alazon, or The Braggart), and he shows us some of the similarities between ancient Greek and Roman senses of humor, which are not far from contemporary Western senses of humor.Plautus also influenced other great playwrights.For example, The Brothers Menaechmus is generally considered a simpler template for Shakespeare's richer The Comedy of Errors.

In this selection, one will encounter some of Western society's earliest slapstick comedies and humorous, moral critiques of undesirable human behaviors.Plautus' penchant for wordplay is also showcased in this text.Plautus' plays are very easy and quick to read, and this 1965 translation definitely has a modern sensibility to it.For example, you will find that Plautus' characters like to cuss a lot, generally at the expense of women.

I recommend this book to readers of ancient Rome and readers interested in the history of the stage.

Latin not Greek
Plautus was a roman dramatist, although he borrowed much of his materialfrom the Greek new comedy.He however brilliantly and emotionally sets uphis plays in a timeless manner which ensures he will retain his place asone of the great comedy geniuses.

The plays are writen with such elegance and emotion.
The plays are writen with such elegance and emotion that transends time and translation. Translated by E.F. Watling, the plays lost none of theiroriginal glory. They show clasical Greek drama at its best. ... Read more

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Brilliantly adapting Greek New Comedy for Roman audiences, the sublime comedies of Plautus (c. 254 -184 bc ) are the earliest surviving complete works of Latin literature. The four plays collected here reveal a playwright in his prime, exploring classic themes and developing standard characters that were to influence the comedies of Shakespeare, Moliere and many others. In The Ghost, a dissolute son who has squandered his father's money is thrown into disarray when he returns from abroad, a theme that is explored further in the comedy of errors A Three-Dollar Day. In The Rope - regarded by many as the best of Plautus' plays - the shipwreck of a pimp and his slaves leads to the touching reunion of a father and his daughter, while Amphitryo, Plautus's only excursion into divine mythology, offers a cheerful account of how Jupiter became father to Hercules. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Superb!
So much just does not translate well into English. Reading this text in the original Latin (and occasionally Greek!) made this already-wonderful work even more enjoyable for me. I highly recommend picking this up if you're studying Plautus- even if you're a hack at Latin, you can follow along well enough with the English, and there are just layers upon layers of beautiful and hysterically funny new things to discover in the original. ... Read more

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Plautus was the single greatest influence on Westerncomedy.In fact, Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors andMoliere's the Miser are two subsequent classics directlybased on Plautine originals.Plautus himself borrowedfrom the Greeks, but his jokes, rapid dialogue, bawdyhumor, and irreverent characterizations are the originalwork of an undisputed genius.The comedies printed hereshow him at his best, and Professor Segal's translationskeep their fast, rollicking pace intact, making thesethe most readable and actable versions available. Thisvolume includes, The Braggart Soldier, e BrothersMenaechmus, The Haunted House, and The Pot of Gold. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Interesting...
This book makes for a good read, though it is not all that funny in today's context.I would recommend this book if you are interested in gaining a deeper understanding the minds of ancient peoples.

Four Comedies...
a worthwhile read for anyone.but look into it if your taking a college course on roman comedy especially though.it's not a quick read but a good one.the "brothers Menaechmus" stays the truest to roman comedy forn with the five staple characters all in there.not for those wihtshort attention spans. ... Read more

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General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1888Original Publisher: J. AllynSubjects: Drama / GeneralDrama / Ancient, Classical ... Read more

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"Mr. Segal has performed the by no means trifling task of making [Plautus's] achievement credible and understandable."--Times Literary Supplement."It is refreshing to find Plautus examined for what he undeniably was--a theatrical phenomenon."--Classical World."We certainly need in English a book devoted to Plautus alone and here we have it."--Phoenix."Many readers will do as I have done: read Roman Laughter with enjoyment and profit."--Classical Philology."Of all the Greek and Roman playwrights," Erich Segal writes, "Titus Maccius Plautus is the least admired and the most imitated."In Roman Laughter, the first book-length study of Plautus, Segal argues that this neglected writer, often denounced by scholars for such crimes as "barbarous clownery," merits our serious attention precisely because he was the most successful poet of the ancient world.He analyzes the reasons behind this success, placing the author in his social and historical context and observing that Plautus's wildly comedic flouting of Roman law and custom had a cathartic effect upon a people bound by rule in every aspect of their lives.This expanded edition contains a new preface that reconsiders the work of Plautus in light of recent scholarship and also contains essays on the Amphitryon and the Captivi. ... Read more

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The relationship between actors and spectators has been of perennial interest to playwrights. The Roman playwright Plautus (ca. 200 BCE) was particularly adept at manipulating this relationship. Plautus allowed his actors to acknowledge freely the illusion in which they were taking part, to elicit laughter through humorous asides and monologues, and simultaneously to flatter and tease the spectators. These metatheatrical techniques are the focus of Timothy J. Moore's innovative study of the comedies of Plautus. The first part of the book examines Plautus' techniques in detail, while the second part explores how he used them in the plays Pseudolus, Amphitruo, Curculio, Truculentus, Casina, and Captivi. Moore shows that Plautus employed these dramatic devices not only to entertain his audience but also to satirize aspects of Roman society, such as shady business practices and extravagant spending on prostitutes, and to challenge his spectators' preconceptions about such issues as marriage and slavery. These findings forge new links between Roman comedy and the social and historical context of its performance. ... Read more

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This is the first comprehensive treatment of Latin extra-paradigmatic verb forms, that is, verb forms which cannot easily be assigned to any particular tense in the Latin verbal system. In order to see what functions such forms fulfil, one has to compare their usage to that of the regular verb forms. In Part 1, Wolfgang de Melo outlines the usage of regular verb forms, which, surprisingly, has not always been described adequately in the standard grammars. In Part 2, the central part of the book, he compares the usage of the extra-paradigmatic verb forms to that of the regular ones, restricting himself to Archaic Latin (roughly before 100 BC); here he makes many new and unexpected discoveries. In Part 3, de Melo shows how synchronic usage can help us to reconstruct earlier stages of the language which are not attested; he also points out that, while most of the extra-paradigmatic forms die out after 100 BC, some survive - and that such survival is by no means a matter of chance. ... Read more

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Plautus was Ancient Rome's greatest comic playwright, Shakespeare drew heavily on his plots, and his legacy is prevalent throughout modern drama.
In this expanded edition of his successful book, one of America's foremost Classical scholars introduces performance criticism to the study of Plautus' ancient drama. In addition to the original detailed studies of six of the dramatist's plays, the methodology of performance criticism, the use of conventions, and the nature of comic heroism in Plautus, this edition includes new studies on:
the induction into the world of the play the scripted imitation of improvisation Plautus's comments on his previous work the nature of "tragicomedy"
Slater demonstrates the fundamental non-illusory nature of Plautine comedy. This study of Plautus's use of metatheatre (the self-conscious employment both of plot conventions and of stock characters to comment on their own theatricality, such as the play within the play) offers a new understanding of the stage dyna ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Plautus duly appreciated
This is one of the most important contributions in Plautine studies since Erich Segal's "Roman Laughter". A close reading of six "plays about play-making" (Epidicus, Persa, Asinaria, Casina, Bacchides, Pseudolus), the book closes down on the cardinal Plautine figure of the servus callidus as the conductor and master-puppeteer of the playworld. This is a book with a thesis: that Plautine theatre is non-mimetic, non-illusory, non-realistic; that, inasmuch as it imitates not life but previous text, it is metatheatrical and intertextual at the outmost. Disadvantages? Slater sometimes overstates his case: for instance, the thesis that in the "Persa" the pimp Dordalus represents the "world of tragedy" (p.53) is one example of such overdrawn conclusions. But not many of those are to be found. Throughout the book, Slater offers specimens of sophisticated performance analysis. The book should perhaps be read in juxtaposition with Slater's newly published volume on Aristophanes. ... Read more

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"The works of Plautus," writes Palmer Bovie, "mark the real beginning of Roman literature." 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 1: Amphitryon, Constance Carrier. Miles Gloriosus, Erich Segal. Captivi, Richard Moore. Casina, Richard Beacham. Curculio, Henry Taylor

Volume 2: Rudens, Constance Carrier. Aulularia, Palmer Bovie. Bacchides, James Tatum. Mercator, George Garrett. Truculentus, James Tatum

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Plautus’ plays represent our earliest remains of Latin literature. They thus form a unique record of the language at an early stage; and, though in verse, their dramatic nature also preserves much of colloquial usage.
Lindsay’s summary of Plautine syntax is presented in handy form: colloquialisms, cases, adjective, pronoun, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection each receive systematic treatment. This is a sine qua non for serious students tackling the plays of Plautus; it is reprinted by Bristol Classical Press at the same time as editions of Plautus’ "Mostellaria," and Terence’s "Phormio" and "Andria." ... Read more

Product Description

"The works of Plautus," writes Palmer Bovie, "mark the real beginning of Roman literature." 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 1: Amphitryon, Constance Carrier. Miles Gloriosus, Erich Segal. Captivi, Richard Moore. Casina, Richard Beacham. Curculio, Henry Taylor

Volume 2: Rudens, Constance Carrier. Aulularia, Palmer Bovie. Bacchides, James Tatum. Mercator, George Garrett. Truculentus, James Tatum

Customer Reviews (1)

Plautus: The Original Comic Genius
This is definitely worth the purchase if you are at all a fan of European Theatre.The plays of Plautus inspired many others, including Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors.Thus, any fan of the theatrical worldwould be missing out if they did not check out this book of the wildlyirreverent, slapstick style writing of Plautus. ... Read more

Product Description
Publisher: Cambridge : D. Bell and Co.Publication date: 1892Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

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"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 Molière'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 3: Poenulus, Janet Burroway. Asinaria, Fred Chappell. Trinummus, Daniel Mark Epstein. Epidicus, Constance Carrier. Mostellaria, Palmer Bovie.

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Contents include: Andria, Heauton Timorumenos, Eunuchus, Phormio, Heyra, Adelphoe. ... Read more

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Amphitryo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, Captivi - Amphitryon, The Comedy of Asses, The Pot of Gold, The Two - Bacchises, The Captives is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Titus Maccius Plautus is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Titus Maccius Plautus then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Product Description
Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

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The comic playscripts by Plautus-the earliest Latin texts we have-made it through the ancient world to reach ours because the moves and verbal jousting found in them have always made people laugh. Plautine comedies span a wide range of idioms, extending from saucy adventures in the sex trade with Father as the fall-guy who foots all bills, to the trouncing of bigmouth trooper by Ms. Hot Stuff; from the fairytale wishes come true of faraway foundlings fished up on a surprise romantic shore, to the caricature gospel that re-stages the myth of the birth of the hero, in true panto style, gods and all.

Although there is no such creature as a typical Plautus play, this cannily chosen set of excerpts-ranging from the best- to least-known plays-gives a good sense of how a whole script runs, from opening hush, through brisk cameos and spectacular showstoppers, to final bow. John Hendersons energy, wit, and contagious affection for Plautussnappy Latin (which he calls 'Plautin') take the reader along on a whirlwind, laugh-out-loud tour. His combination of commentary, interpretive remarks, and attention to staging and metatheatrics make this edition a perfect introduction to Plautus, and an incentive for further reading.

Special Features

* Introduction that is as lively as it is informative
* 616 lines of unadapted Latin text from eleven Plautus plays: Asinaria 746-809, Amphitruo 361-462, Captiui 1029-36, Casina 780-854 and 1012-18, Cistellaria 203-29, Curculio 462-86, Menaechmi 77-109 and 351-69, Poenulus 1-45 and 541-66, Pseudolus 1-2 and 394-414, Rudens 938-1044, and Truculentus 482-548
* Notes at the back
* Map and five photos
* Bibliography and further reading for each play
* Appendix on meter
* Guide to pronunciation of proper names
* Online Latin text, marked for reading aloud (download pdf)
* Complete vocabulary

For over 30 years Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers has produced the highest quality Latin and ancient Greek books. From Dr. Seuss books in Latin to Plato's Apology, Bolchazy-Carducci's titles help readers learn about ancient Rome and Greece; the Latin and ancient Greek languages are alive and well with titles like Cicero's De Amicitia and Kaegi's Greek Grammar. We also feature a line of contemporary eastern European and WWII books.

Some of the areas we publish in include:

Selections From The Aeneid
Latin Grammar & Pronunciation
Greek Grammar & Pronunciation
Texts Supporting Wheelock's Latin
Classical author workbooks: Vergil, Ovid, Horace, Catullus, Cicero
Vocabulary Cards For AP Selections: Vergil, Ovid, Catullus, Horace
Greek Mythology
Greek Lexicon
Slovak Culture And History ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A seminal source of materials for the study of Latin
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers is a seminal source of materials for the study of Latin. Two of their newest contributions include John Henderson's "A Plautus Reader: Selections from Eleven Plays" and Victoria E. Pagan's "A Sallust Reader: Selections from Bellum Catilinae, Bellum Iugurthinum, and Historiae". The comedic playwright Plautus and the Roman historian Sallust are significant in studying the culture and history of Rome and serve as ideal sources in the study of Latin for modern students. Enhanced with grammatical and historical notes, maps and photos, and vocabulary, both "A Plautus Reader" and "A Sallust Reader" will prove invaluable additions to personal, professional, and academic library Latin Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists. ... Read more