Theater PDF EPUB

The Comedies of Terence

by Terence

Downloads: Under 100
Pages: 440

Read online EPUB Download Save

About this book

Six plays survive complete from Terence, and all six appear here in Henry Thomas Riley's literal prose translation: Andria, Eunuchus, Heautontimorumenos, Adelphi, Hecyra and Phormio. Terence built each one from Greek New Comedy, four after Menander and two after Apollodorus of Carystus, and stocked them with the devices the form ran on: young men in love with unsuitable girls, fathers blocking the match, slaves inventing schemes, and girls who turn out to be freeborn citizens. Set beside Plautus, the other Roman comic playwright whose work survives in quantity, the humor is quieter and the family arguments sound closer to real speech. Adelphi, in which two brothers raise two boys by opposite methods, still works as an argument about how to bring up a child. Riley's notes run with each play.

About the author

Terence

Terence (Publius Terentius Afer) was born in North Africa around 195 or 185 BC and brought to Rome as a slave, where the senator Terentius Lucanus educated him and set him free. His six comedies were staged between 166 and 160 BC, each of them reworked from Greek originals by Menander or Apollodorus of Carystus.

Open the author page