The Rope and Other Plays Book

Plautus was dynamic, and this selection of plays is a perfect sampling of his talent's many facets. It has been well said by D.C. Berman that finding ancient comedies, including Shakespeare, really funny just means you're trying too hard, for comedy, unlike tragedy, evolves with the times. Nevertheless, these plays are fascinating, for they display, in rudimentary form, the mastery of eternal comic technique. Everything you like about Mel Brooks is here, from mutually duplicitous interlocutors, to repetition unto laughter. Even audience participation a la Bertolt Brecht is on display in Amphitryo, where the spectators are to be convinced they are directing the action. The irrepressible optimism of slaves is contemptible, however.