Description
Book SynopsisA major comic artist in Republican Rome, Plautus left a legacy of twenty extremely inventive comedies. Ostensibly Latin versions of Greek plays staged in Athens several generations earlier, they display an exuberance and zany sense of humor that are distinctly Roman. Peter L. Smith here offers lively and colloquial English verse translations of three plays: Miles Gloriosus (The Braggart Warrior), Pseudolus (The Cheat), and Rudens (The Rope). In their quality and variety, the three plays represent an ideal sampling of Plautus'' work, and the translations themselves are meant to be enjoyed as living theater.
Miles Gloriosus is a comic assault on human vanity and self-importance, as manifested in the persona of an absurdly swaggering military officer. Pseudolus features a scheming slave of quick wit and fertile imagination, who assists his well-born but dim-witted young master in pursuing a seemingly hopeless love affair.
Trade Review
"A lively, witty, forceful rendition, faithful to the letter as well as to the spirit of the original. The translations are engaging and highly entertaining in their own right." -- David Konstan, Brown University
