These fundamental societal concerns gave Plautus' Menaechmi an enduring role in the classical tradition, which is also examined here, including notable adaptations by William Shakespeare, Jean François Regnard, Carlo Goldoni and Rodgers and Hart. Shakespeares source for the improbable comedy is Plautus Menaechmi, but the Bard improves on Plautus by going one better - or rather two better - twin. On the one hand, the sequence of misunderstandings arising from the presence in the same city of a pair of identical twins with the same name has been likened to clockwork and attributed in essentials to an unknown Greek dramatist. Already then people were obsessed with status, tags and emoticons, although they called them with different names. The book analyzes the power dynamics at play in the various relationships, especially between master and slave and husband and wife, in order to explore the meaning of freedom and the status of slaves and women in Roman culture and Roman comedy. Widely different views have been held concerning the structure of Plautus’ Menaechmi. Plautus’ Menaechmi was performed in Latin around the late third century BC in Rome, in a world and a culture that were very different from ours. Each encounter with a misidentified twin destabilizes the status quo and provides valuable insight into Roman domestic and social relationships. A gluttonous parasite, manipulative courtesan, shrewish wife, crotchety father-in-law, bumbling cook, saucy handmaid, quack doctor, and band of thugs comprise the colourful cast of characters.
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People William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Titus Maccius Plautus. , Comedy, Criticism and interpretation, Sources, Latin language materials, Drama (dramatic works by one author), Texts, Drama in Latin, To ca 500.
#Source for plautus menaechmi series
Menaechmi is a tale of identical twin brothers who are separated as young children and reconnect as adults following a series of misadventures due to mistaken identity. The Comedy of Errors Sources: Menaechmi, Plautus translated by W. Menaechmi by Titus Maccius Plautus, unknown edition. He is married to a matrona dotata and enjoys a life of almost daily feasting with a courtesan (Erotium) and a parasite (Peniculus).
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This new volume in the Bloomsbury Ancient Comedy Companions series is perfect for students coming to one of Plautus' most whimsical, provocative, and influential plays for the first time, and a useful first point of reference for scholars less familiar with Roman comedy. 1 Leach 1969, 36 points out that Menaechmus of Epidamnus is doubly bound: to his wife and to his mist 1 Plautus’ Menaechmi revolves around the young Menaechmus I, abducted as a child from Tarentum and now leading a seemingly normal life in Epidmamnus.