Persa: Introduction and Commentary

Abstract

The Persa of Plautus has received little scholarly attention. Aside from a handful of articles and a few passing remarks in monographs about other plays or aspects of Plautus or Roman comedy, the only commentaries on the play are: Woytek (1982, German), Ammendola (1922, Italian), Ussing (1886, Latin), Jacobus Operarius (1679, Latin) and Lambinus (1577, Latin). This dissertation, taking the form of an introduction and commentary on the Persa, is the first commentary and, more generally, the first full-length treatment of the play in English. The introduction has three goals: (1) to show why all previous commentaries in other languages, but especially Woytek’s, fail to meet the needs and address the interests of modern readers and scholars of Plautus; (2) to demonstrate that the Persa has been neglected unjustly and that it merits attentive reading just as much as the more popular comedies of Plautus; and (3), to introduce the main issues of the play and the main interests of commentary which follows. The commentary itself performs all of the basic work that one would expect: collecting comparanda, explaining difficult and corrupt passages, providing necessary cultural and historical context, etc. In addition, it places particular emphasis on explaining Plautus’ language (especially alliteration, proverbs, etymology, the relationship between the colloquial and literary registers of Latin, word choice, and parallels with modern European languages), the staging of the drama, the development of the characters and their relationships, music, and the issues of slavery and gender. The goal throughout is to render the play more accesible to a wider audience of readers.