The Dramatic Values in Plautus (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Wilton Wallace Blancke

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1330710738 ISBN 13: 9781330710739

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2018

Synopsis

A close, scene-by-scene study of Plautus’s comic methods in Roman theater, explained for today’s reader.

This scholarly examination surveys stock plots, character types, and stagecraft in Plautus’s plays. It traces how farce, burlesque, and clever dialogue worked together to shape ancient comedy, with clear, concrete examples that illuminate the craft behind the laughs.

The book combines criticism, performance history, and detailed analysis to show how Plautus made audiences laugh, while clarifying what modern readers can learn from his techniques.

• Discussions of stock characters and recurring plots in Plautus’s works
• Close look at dramatic devices like mistaken identity, disguises, and audience address
• Connections between ancient performance practice and the bite and timing of modern farce
• Clear examples that illustrate how humor is constructed on stage

Ideal for readers of classical theater, literary history, and dramatic method alike.

About this title

Product Description

Excerpt from The Dramatic Values in Plautus This dissertation was written in 1916, before the entrance of the United States into The War, and was presented to the Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Its publication at this time needs no apology, for it will find its only public in the circumscribed circle of professional scholars. They at least will understand that scholarship knows no nationality. But in the fear that this may fall under the eye of that larger public, whose interests are, properly enough, not scholastic, a word of explanation may prove a safeguard. The Germans have long been recognized as the hewers of wood and drawers of water of the intellectual world. For the results of the drudgery of minute research and laborious compilation, the scholar must perforce seek German sources. The copious citation of German authorities in this work is, then, the outcome of that necessity. I have, however, given due credit to German criticism, when it is sound. The French are, generically, vastly superior in the art of finely balanced critical estimation. My sincere thanks are due in particular to the Harrison Foundation of the University for the many advantages I have received therefrom, to Professors John C. Rolfe and Walton B. McDaniel, who have been both teachers and friends to me, and to my good comrades and colleagues, Francis H. Lee and Horace T. Boileau, for their aid in editing this essay. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majorit

Edition details

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1330710738
• ISBN 13: 9781330710739
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 83