Plautus: Mostellaria

"The Mostellaria (often called in English The Haunted House) is one of Plautus' most lively plays and one which contains his most skilfully handled elements of farce. The two slaves Tranio and Grumio are exquisitely drawn and lent their names to the servants in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. The plot concerns Tranio's attempts to disguise from his elderly master Theopropides the sexual and financial prodigality of his son Philolaches, who is in love with the beautiful but unsuitable Philematium. Theopropides returns from a journey abroad and, in order to prevent him catching his son in flagrante delicto, Tranio invents an unlikely tale that the house is haunted. The complexities and confusions to which this gives rise are finally resolved in reconciliation and forgiveness." "This edition, first published in the Macmillan School Classics series in 1972, was conceived very much as a first reader in Roman comedy. The introduction includes sections on Plautus, the genre, the play and its plot, Plautine language, style and metrics. Ample annotation and a full vocabulary aid the less experienced reader."--BOOK JACKET.

Frank R. Merrill was at the time of writing Professor of Latin and Greek at Washington & Jefferson College, Washington, Pennsylvania.