The Roman dramatist Terence (c. 186-159 BC) adapted many of his comedies from Greek sources, rendering them suitable for audiences of his own time by introducing subtler characterization and more complex plots. In his romantic play, The Girl from Andros, Terence portrays a love affair saved by a startling discovery. The Self-Tormentor focusses on a man's remorse after sending his son to war, and The Eunuch depicts a case of mistaken identity. Phormio is as rich in intrigue as a French farce, while The Mother-in-Law shows two families striving to save a marriage and The Brothers contrasts strict and lenient upbringings. With their tight plots and spare dialogue, Terence gave his plays a sense of humanity that became a model in the Renaissance and greatly influenced Molière. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The Comedies (Penguin Classics)

Literature & Fiction

Térence

Dramas & Plays

Penguin Classics

The ideal single-volume introduction to the greatest masterpieces of ancient comedy From the fifth to the second century B.C., theatrical comedy flourished in Greece and Rome. This new anthology brings together four essential masterworks of the genre: Aristophanes' bold, imaginative The Birds; Menander's The Girl from Samos, which explores popular contemporary themes of mistaken identity and sexual misbehavior; and two later Roman comic plays: Plautus's The Brothers Menaechmus, the inspiration for Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors; and Terence's bawdy yet sophisticated double love plot, The Eunuch. Together, these four plays capture the genius of classical comedy for students, theatergoers, actors, lovers of satire, and anyone interested in the ancient world. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Classical Comedy

Plautus

Aristophanes

Menander

Terence was the outstanding comedic playwright of his generation and one of the founding fathers of European comic drama. All six of his plays survive and are collected in this volume. Acknowledged as classics soon after his early death, admired above all for their style but also for their insights into human nature, these plays have been imitated by authors as diverse Molière and P.G. Wodehouse. They deal with the love-life of adolescent boys and with associated tensions in their relations with their fathers, showing love triumph over obstacles of various kinds. The action is enlivened by a number of stock characters such as scheming slaves, parasites, prostitutes, pimps, and boastful soldiers, and stock situations such as the rediscovery of foundlings. Rome had reached a pinnacle of power in the Mediterranean world, and the plays reflect tensions that were in the air at the time. But they are also true to universal elements of human experience, and audiences today can readily engage with the issues they raise. This new translation with introduction and explanatory notes aims to be both accurate and idiomatic, and to convey the liveliness of the plays as pieces written for the theatre.

The Comedies (Oxford World's Classics)

Brown,Peter

Oxford University Press

Contents include: Andria, Heauton Timorumenos, Eunuchus, Phormio, Heyra, Adelphoe.

Comoediae: Andria, Heauton Timorumenos, Eunuchus, Phormio, Hecyra, Adelphoe (Oxford Classical Texts Series) (Latin Edition)

Clarendon Press

'I thought you'd do what the common run of slaves normally do, cheating and tricking me because my son's having an affair.' Terence's comedies have provided plots and characters for comic drama from classical times to the present; the outstanding comic playwright of his generation at Rome, he has influenced authors from Molière and Wycherley to P. G. Wodehouse. Scheming slaves, parasites, prostitutes, pimps, and boastful soldiers populate his plays, which show love triumphing over obstacles of various kinds, and the problems that arise from ignorance, misunderstanding, and prejudice. Although they reflect contemporary tensions in Roman society, their insights into human nature and experience make them timeless in their appeal. Peter Brown's lively new translation does full justice to Terence's style and skill as a dramatist.

Terence The Comedies (Oxford World's Classics)

Pi Terenti Afri Andria

Ayer Co. Pub

Four essential classic plays with an introduction by the editor
 The comedies of Plautus and Terence are all that survive to us of a great age of Roman comedy theatre. Collected here are four important plays that offer a unique insight into everyday life in ancient Rome, whilst maintaining a pivotal influence over the theatre of the present day. In The Haunted House the intrigues of a clever slave are played out in a virtuoso comic role; Plautus's Casina is a fast-moving romp through the sexual mores of the Roman upper classes; Terence's more sophisticated The Eunuch, and The Brothers are perhaps closer in sentiment to the attitudes of modern comedy and reflect situations with universal appeal. The volume is edited and introduced by J.Michael Walton, Professor of Drama at the University of Hull.

Four Roman Comedies: The Haunted House;Casina; or A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Wedding;Eunuch;Brothers (Classical Dramatists)

Plautus, Titus Maccius

Humor & Entertainment

Methuen Drama

The Adelphoe (The Brothers) of Terence is a Latin adaptation of a comedy of the same name by the Greek comic playwright Menander. The theme of the play is the perennially interesting question of the relationship between the generations and the proper way to bring up a son. In the introduction Mr Martin considers Terence in the context of Roman comedy generally and discusses the background of the Adelphoe. There is also a section on metre and scansion and a short analysis of the textual tradition. The full and detailed commentary, besides elucidating the text, seeks at all times to help the reader to understand the work as a play to be enjoyed. The edition is intended for use by students at school and university and for anyone wishing to read and appreciate the play in the original.

Terence: Adelphoe (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics)

Cambridge University Press

Terence: Eunuchus (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics)

This is the first ever full-scale commentary in English on Eunuchus (The Eunuch) by the Roman comic playwright Terence. This was his most successful play in his lifetime and one of his most popular plays in the Renaissance period, though it has been surprisingly neglected by modern commentators. The book provides a thorough examination of the literary and dramatic qualities of the play, and also offers a close study of Terence's Latin in comparison with that of his predecessor Plautus.

History & Criticism

Terence: Hecyra (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics)

Terence's Hecyra raises social, literary and theatrical issues of great interest to modern students of Roman comedy and, indeed, of Roman culture more broadly. The play pays strikingly close attention to the domestic problems of women and experiments boldly with traditional comic forms, not only in its creation of anticipatory suspense, but through its variations on traditional situations and roles and its metatheatrical qualities. In addition, Terence's response in his prologues to the play's two putative failures is important, if tendentious, evidence for the mechanics of theatrical performance in the second century, especially the conjunction of theatrical and gladiatorial shows. This edition opens the play's many interpretive challenges to wider scrutiny while remaining attentive to the linguistic needs of students at all levels.

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