But, as we know, this play has its roots in
Plautus, an underfunded comic writer who knew his Roman working class audiences and gave them what they wanted, which was easy comic book comedies containing large dollops of eating, drinking and sex.
The following English translation of
Plautus' Miles Gloriosus 2.2 forms part of an Honours' mini-dissertation in which I will focus on conceptual metaphor and the translation thereof.
(6) In the spirit of Prescott, I posit that
Plautus wrote the script with care (whether he closely followed or altered this scene from his Greek model) and that Myrrhina's behavior in this scene can be understood in the context of her character, without resorting to the non-explanation of dramatic necessity.
Chapter Three examines Machiavelli's Clizia, and challenges the traditional view that it is a mediocre imitation of
Plautus' Casina.
In explaining how that learning shows itself, Burrow eschews "traditional source-study, of the kind that lists direct allusions" hunted down by "traditional source-hunters." He is aware, for example, that The Comedy of Errors is a melding of several plays by
Plautus, but he isn't interested in these direct influences of story line or script.
Incidental music and choruses for
Plautus's Mostellaria.
The topics include Dionysus' choice in Frogs and Aristophanes' parenetic pedigree, the reception of comedy in the ancient novel, Titus Andronicus as an illustration of the link between Roman comedy and Renaissance revenge drama, Lysistrata on Broadway, and
Plautus' Menaechmi in English translation.
The Roman playwright
Plautus is famous for his tendency to make up and change the meaning of words to create puns in Latin.
The artists' eclectic repertoire of sources ranges from Sextus Propertius and
Plautus through Victor Hugo and Alfred Jarry to Jorge Luis Borges and Rene Daumal, from whose 1938 novel A Night of Serious Drinking they've borrowed the term ahyssology, the study of the abyss, applying it to their creative practice.