This is another one of those "essential" pages. The page has a good biography of Plautus and an overlook of his career. Its interesting to note that Plautus, like Shakespere, developed his work from writers before him. Now don't you think thats why Shakespere and Plautus are so great? I think that they used the intellect of other people and made a name for themselves. But they still needed to be smart to do that. An average person can plagerize and 'fix-up' the works of Plato and Aristotle and also become great.
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This is a very good page which discusses the value of laughter and comedy in Greece and Rome and its effect on modern comedy. Greek and Roman comedy set the foundations of comedy for our modern western culture. Almost every comedy show on tv, Broadway, and movie has its foundations derived from Greek and Roman comedy. One of the most interesting things I learned from this class was that the ancient literature from the Sumerians and the Mesopatomians like the Epic of Gilgamesh focused on questioning the unknowable (immortality). But the Greeks and the Romans focused on issues which effected mankind. They did not seek to question the unknowable (Plato is an exception), but focused on what was known.
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This page has a comprehensive summary of Plautus' The Braggart Soldier and its relation to A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum was a Broadway musical derived from three of Plautus's comedies. Though the play left out the Braggart Soldier, the comedy and story of the show was still derived from the play.
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This is an excellent page because it discusses the events which were taking place in Rome in second and third century B.C. The page provides an insight on how events can effect literature. Rome became the center of slavery in the second and third century B.C. The site suggests that the increase of slaves in Rome is the reason why all of Plautus's comedies involves a major role played by a slave. This is another reason why we should value ancient literature because it is the best source of primary historic information.
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The development of theatre was a major achievement in Rome. The theatres were the center of the agora. This site has many links on the development and role of theatres in Rome. It also has pictures of what Roman theatres looked like.
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This is another excellent Plautus biography page. Most of his work was derived from Menander. The site is brief and right to the point, but with very good information.
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This site has all the information needed to do a major in Plautus and Roman comedy. It has a section on Roman Adaptations of Greek Plays, The Origins of Roman Comedy, How the Plays Were Produced, Music in Roman Comedy, Stock Characters in Roman Comedy, Characters and Synopses of Plautus's plays, and much more.
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This is an excellent site with pictures of costumes wore in the Roman theatres. The costumes are very attractive and colorful. The Romans did not have zoom-in cameras in their theatres, and many of the spectators were seated far from the action. The Roman actors had to be very good at using body language because that was the only way spectators can notice them. The costumes had to be very exotic and colorful so that the spectators can distinguish between characters.
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