Plautus’ play, the haunted house, is full of imagery that subverts and goes against the grain of the traditional imagery associated with the characters he describes. In Roman society, the slave should be subservient to his master and the son subservient and reverent towards his father. This is not the case for Plautus. In it the slave (often referred to as a “Plautine slave” by scholars.) is shown to be far cleverer than his master and the Father, who has committed no misdeed, is made a fool of,
Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors and Plautus' Menaechmi and Amphitruo One of Shakespeare's earliest plays (its first recorded performance in December 1594), The Comedy of Errors has frequently been dismissed as pure farce, unrepresentative of the playwright's later efforts. While Errors may very well contain farcical elements, it is a complex, layered work that draws upon and reinterprets Plautine comedy. Shakespeare combines aspects of these Latin plays with biblical source material, chiefly
Shakespeare found a model in the plays of Plautus and Terence, which were studied in all Elizabethan Grammar Schools, praised by schoolmasters, and critically respectable. (Muir 3) The Menaechmi was the first Plautus play to appear in translation, and was a popular school text (Muir 16). Amphitruo, the second Plautus play informing The Comedy of Errors, was available in English translation by 1562-63, and was similarly taught (Miola 22). Plautus and Terence texts served the schools not as
given literary mode. This paper will seek to elucidate the unique opportunities comedy presents to a translator, in this case William Shakespeare, of a play, The Brothers Menaechmus by Plautus. Due to the rules that govern comedy, Shakespeare was afforded the ability to move beyond creating a copy of Plautus and merge his work with the original: The Comedy of Errors is an adaptation of Menaechmus, but it is also a continuation of its predecessor. Shakespeare’s play should not be viewed as simply
held, and was to develop further in later works. Plautus' Menaechmi yields a basic framework for Shakespeare's plot: two long-separated brothers mistaken for one another. Yet Plautus' two brothers differ markedly in attitude: one is "gay, generous, and fun-loving," the other "shrewd, calculating, and cynical" (Kinko, p. 10). Shakespeare's Antipholi seem as confused as their Menaechmi relations, but more interchangeable in general temperament. Plautus' Amphitryon provides the idea of doubling servants
tools. Plautus is a Roman screenwriter, and he wrote the play “The Conduct and Treatment of Slaves” to educate the audience on how slaves were treated by their masters during the end of the Second Punic War which took place during 201 B.C. Plautus starts the play off by introducing a brutal slave owner named Ballio, who treats the slaves very unfairly by beating and whipping them and also verbally abusing them. “Never did I see men more like asses than you!” (1), is just one example
Casina to Olympio she enlists the help of her two slaves, Chalinus and Pardalisca, and her friend/neighbor Myrrhina to get revenge. All throughout the Roman comedy Cleostrata’s power over her husband Lysidamus and her ability to embarrass him is painfully obvious. In the beginning of Act II, when Cleostrata is going to visit Myrrhina her slave Pardalisca informs her that Lysidamus wants lunch ready for when he returns home. Cleostrata’s responded “I will not get things ready, and not a thing shall
I used to serve tables and one particular table will forever haunt me. After a normal meal, an older gentleman gave me his credit card to pay for his meal. The name on the card was none other than Gordie Howe. I was star struck to say the least. When I approached him, I immediately asked for his autograph on my grandparent’s fiftieth anniversary card. He looked the part and acted the part as well. After giving the card to my grandparents as a gift, I then had it appraised. I was happy to
A single reading of Shakespeare’s The Comedy Errors may lead one to believe that the play is a simple retelling of Plautus’ The Brothers Menaechmus, with Shakespeare making superficial changes in order to update the play for the current, at the time, audiences and social context. After all, Errors retains Menaechmi’s basic plot structure and characters. However, further viewings and analysis reveal that the changes made in Menaechmi’s adaptation in Errors add new thematic layers to the play that
In the first scene of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, Menenius tells a short story about how a human body degenerated. He begins with the “members” (organs of the body, excluding the stomach) protesting about how the “belly” (the stomach) does no work, while the members do all of the work. Menenius continues by saying that the members felt like slaves obligated to provide for all of the belly’s wants. The members decided to stop doing what they felt was “all the work,” and let the belly starve. Consequently
conspicuously harsh by their tough works and cruel tortures from their inconsidered masters. The more brutal oppression of masters, the more intense of slave revolt, and finally to cause the massive revolt in Roman. The Pseudolus was written by Titus Maccius Plautus, a Roman playwright, who wrote about the time of the end of Second Punic War. The play told a story about the how a slave helping with his master to solve the problem in ancient Roman. The main characters in Pseudolus is Pseudolus, and he was the
Plautus, a proud Roman playwright, is best known for his work as a dramatist and his comedic plays. Some of the few works that survived the time period, Plautus gives readers a look into the start of the comedic genre as it was developed. Daily routine and average people seem to be the basis of all of his works, especially most of the plays seen in the collection Plautus: The Pot of Gold and Other Plays. In this paper, I will discuss each of the plays included in the collection and their main themes
Comparing the Andy Griffith Show and Plautus' Miles Gloriosus In The Andy Griffith Show and in Greek and Roman Comedy the viewer or reader, whichever the case may be, will notice the dominating fatherly male character, the male character who is always confused, the person who is in need of help or looking for answers, and the female who is needed for the male. The sitcoms of today are similar to some of the Greek and Roman comedies of the past. The reader or viewer may also notice that there
Both Plautus and Terence are highly renowned playwrights, whose work has been passed on as an example of comedy in Roman culture. Plautus and Terence both pulled from the Greeks as inspiration, and although both authors’ work is humorous, they take different form. Plautus’ work is extreme, light-hearted and comical, while Terence’s work is more witty and realistic. This can be seen in Plautus’ play Double Bind and Terence’s work The Brothers. In both plays the authors have the same theme of moderation
Pyrgopolynices (Plautus 199). Their varying degree of villainy aside, both undoubtedly occupy the role of the antihero in their respective works. Moreover, despite these distinguishing features, the foundation of the alazon remains visible in both Pyrgopolynices and Tartuffe. Collington argues that when analyzing a certain character type, “each work has distinctive features, but a generic outline remains visible” creating a “flexible skeleton” through which similarities can be drawn
If we are to believe Suetonius’s biography of Publius Terence, then the latter was born in 184 B.C., the exact year of the death of his predecessor, Plautus. The two wrote for a Rome in the midst of a centuries-long period of hellanisation. (Barsby.) One of the many ways in which the pervasiveness of Greek culture is evident is the popularity, at the time, of adaptations of Greek New Comedy. One of the plays that I will be discussing in this essay, Terence’s The Eunuch, is in fact a direct adaptation
and was to develop further in later works. Plautus' Menaechmi yields a basic framework for Shakespeare's plot: two long-separated brothers mistaken for one another. Yet Plautus' two brothers differ markedly in attitude: one is "gay, generous, and fun-loving," the other "shrewd, calculating, and cynical" (Kinko, p. 10). Shakespeare's Antipholi seem as confused as their Menaechmi relations, but more interchangeable in general temperament. Plautus' Amphitryon provides the idea of doubling servants
Laughter and humor are ongoing topics amongst philosophers to ponder and to determine what makes one laugh, what’s funny? Thomas Hobbes’ theory, though short, is one that is a central point of reference, to date, when analyzing what makes us laugh. According to Hobbes “the passion of laughter is nothing but sudden glory arising from sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others” (Hobbes 458). Hobbes believes that it’s one’s superior feelings over another
Any examination of women in Livy’s writing demands not only a literal interpretation of their character development and values, but also must account for their symbolic importance—thus creating a much more complex representation. Livy, an ancient historian, authored The Early History of Rome to be an exploration of Rome from its foundation, focusing on historical events and societal organization. In it, he examines the patriarchal society that stabilized Rome throughout its dominance. However, as
The Skystone and The Singing Sword Marion Zimmer Bradley, a book critic, says The Skystone is "one of the most interesting historical novels that I've ever read, and I've read plenty"(Front cover). In writing, success is generally a direct result of an author being able to keep a reader interested. Jack Whyte is an interesting and successful author throughout The Skystone and The Singing Sword because of his development of characters and his ability to write strategically. Character development