Five Comedies: Miles Gloriosus, Menaechmi, Bacchides, Hecyra and Adelphoe (Hackett Publishing Co.)

By Terence and Plautus

Book Overview

This is a book worthy of high praise. . . . All versions are exceedingly witty and versatile, in verse that ripples from one's lips, pulling all the punches of Plautus, the knockabout king of farce, and proving that the more polished Terence can be just as funny. Accuracy to the original has been thoroughly respected, but look at the humour in rendering Diphilius' play called Synapothnescontes as Three's a Shroud. . . . Students in schools and colleges will benefit from short introductions to each play, to Roman stage conventions, to different types of Greek and Roman comedy, and there is a note on staging, with a diagram illustrating a typical Roman stage and further diagrams of the basic set for each play. The translators have paid more attention to stage directions than is usually given in translations, because they aim to show how these plays worked. This is a book to be used and enjoyed. --Raymond J. Clark, The Classical Outlook

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087220362X
• ISBN13: 9780872203624
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
• Length: 424 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Not literal, but entertaining

If you are looking for a literal translation, or at least one that conveys the original word choice/style, look elsewhere. If you can read the Latin yourself but want something that better conveys the spirit and humor of the comedies, this is a good choice. I used this in tandem with the original Latin for a 300 level Latin class, and it was useful in that it contrasted well with our own rather stilted and unfunny translations.

Old Time Comedy

Although it's been forty years since I have read any Roman comedy in the Latin, I can still enjoy what Plautus and Terence wrote over two thousand years ago. As for the translations, the rhyme scemes used for the different characters and parts of the plot make the play come to life. While laughing at the unfolding story I marveled at the ryhmes and the alliterations. It also didn't hurt that Dr. Douglass Parker was my advisor at the University of California at Riverside, lo those many years ago.