Description

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 Molière 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.