Cover -- Halftitle page -- Series page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- 1 TWINtroduction to Menaechmi, Plautus and Roman Comedy -- Menaechmi : A prologue -- Plot summary -- Plautus: Life and work -- Greek new...
more
Cover -- Halftitle page -- Series page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- 1 TWINtroduction to Menaechmi, Plautus and Roman Comedy -- Menaechmi : A prologue -- Plot summary -- Plautus: Life and work -- Greek new comic and Italian dramatic origins -- Cultural context of performance: Ludi -- actors -- audience -- Practicalities of performance -- a) Music and dance -- b) Masks -- c) Costumes -- d) Props -- 2 Persons (and Places) of TWINterest: Setting, Characters and Themes -- A Tale of Two Cities: Rome vs Epidamnus -- The characters -- a) The Prologue -- b) The young men -- c) The slaves -- d) The prostitute -- e) The cook -- f) The parasite -- g) The wife -- h) The old man -- i) The doctor -- 3 TWINterplay of Comic Language and Stage Business: Bits, Banter and Buffoonery -- The Mistaken Identity Bit -- Metatheatrical devices -- a) Prologue and epilogue -- b) Monologue / soliloquy -- c) Asides -- role-playing -- d) Eavesdropping scenes -- Plautine language -- Visual gags and physical comedy -- A happy ending? -- 4 TWINfluence on the Classical Tradition -- Early transmission and revival -- Plautus, Menaechmi, translated perhaps by Duke Ercole I of Ferrara (1486) -- William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors (1594) -- Jean-François Regnard, Les Ménechmes, ou Les Jumeaux (1705) -- Carlo Goldoni, The Venetian Twins (I Due Gemelli Veneziani) (1748) -- Richard Rodgers (music), Lorenz Hart (lyrics), and George Abbott (book), The Boys From Syracuse (1938) -- Conclusion -- Appendix Texts, translations and commentaries -- Notes -- References -- TWINdex.
