The Oxford Companion to English Literature | 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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