biography
| name: |
Plautus, Titus Maccius
|
pronunciation:
[plawtus]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (c.250–184 BC)
|
| biography:
| Comic playwright, born in Sarsina, Italy. He worked in the theatre, then in foreign trade, before beginning to write plays (c.224 BC). About 130 plays have been attributed to him, but many are thought to be the work of earlier playwrights which he revised. Varro limited the genuine comedies to 21, and these ‘Varronian comedies’ are the ones which have survived. Extremely popular, and still being performed five centuries later, the plays are full of robust life and vigorous dialogue, and influenced many other playwrights, such as Shakespeare and Molière. |
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