The Comedies

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.