Plautus, Titus Maccius
Plautus, Titus Maccius ( c. 254 – 184 BC ),early Roman dramatist who adapted the Greek New Comedy for the Roman stage. The extent of his originality remains uncertain. He does not seem to have translated exactly, but he certainly worked within the Greek convention using the same stock characters—miserly fathers, spendthrift sons, boastful soldiers, resourceful parasites, courtesans, and slaves—and often borrowing the plots of his Greek models. Twenty of his plays have survived, and it was from him and from his successor Terence that Europe learned about ancient comedy. His direct influence on English literature is slight, though Udall was indebted to him in Ralph Roister Doister , Shakespeare adapted his Menaechmi in The Comedy of Errors , Jonson conflated the Captivi and the Aulularia in The Case Is Altered , and Dryden adapted his Amphitryon ;...
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