Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION GREEK DRAMA Greek Tragedy Origins (Attic and Dorian) of Comedy Old, Middle, and New Attic Comedy ROMAN DRAMA Native Italic drama Earliest Latin writers of drama Plautus' life Plautus' plays: dates, Greek tone, contaminatio Roman drama after Plautus Later influence of Roman comedy STAGE AND PRODUCTION Greek theaters Roman theaters and stage setting Production: occasions, actors, costumes, music (cantica and diuerbia), instruments Act and scene divisions, didascaliae, argumenta, prologues The Miles: date, Greek original, plot, unified by Palaestrio, moralizing passages, entrances and exits, Roman allusions, later influence METERS Rhythm, ictus and accent, length of syllables, metrical substitution, metrical feet, caesura and diaeresis Trochaic septenarius Iambic senarius and septenarius Anapaestic septenarius Index of meters LANGUAGE General Prosody: accent and ictus, elision, prodelision of es and est, crasis, hiatus, synizesis, iambic shortening, suppression of final -e, final -s need not make position, shift of ictus on the same forms Words borrowed from Greek Poetic devices: alliteration, assonance, wordplay, metaphors Constructions: genitives, parataxis, parenthetical words, directional adverbs in -o, fui for sum in perfect passive Stem variations: -o- for -e-, -ei- for -1-, -1for 4-, -u- for 4-, -cl-/-pl- for -eul-/-pul-, -os and -om for -as and -urn, deuces and cassabant, ap-/op- for ab-lob- Case forms of declensions: mers and lacte, -at for -ae, -urn for -orum, -din the ablative and accusative Pronouns: intensive endings, forms of is, quis feminine, qui ablative and adverb, demonstratives with -ce, ecce, ecquis Verb stems: contracted perfects, -ss- in perfect, -s- in future and perfect, aio,fio Verbal endings: -ier in passive infinitive, -ibo in future, dic, due, fac, and fer, cedo, -i- in perfect. c-cm. Forms of sum. TEXT Manuscripts and text of Plautus Editions on which this edition is based BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SUGGESTIONS Bibliography General Translations Theater New Comedy Roman comedy Plautine chronology Plautus' originality Dramatic technique Language Meter Manuscripts Later influence TEXT AND NOTES

About the Author

Mason Hammond was Pope Professor of Latin Language and Literature, Harvard University.

Reviews

At last we have an excellent edition for college students of Plautus's Miles with notes in English...Its virtues are many...The Miles [will be] a joy to read and teach. * Classical World *
A fine edition of the Miles Gloriosus...Especially useful for the student. * Classical Bulletin *
Thanks to the editors, undergraduates will now have accessible a thoroughly helpful and interesting commentary. * Journal of Roman Studies *