George E. Duckworth
The Nature of Roman Comedy: A Study in Popular Entertainment.
Princeton University Press, 1952. First edition. xiii/501 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 6.75" x 9.75", is bound in red cloth, with stamped silver lettering to spine. Book shows light shelfwear. Binding is firm. Name of previous owner can be seen on front flyleaf. Pages are clean and without markings. Illustrated with plates. Dust jacket, with price of $7.50 on front flap, exhibits minor loss at top edges, bottom edge of spine panel and at outside corners. Rubbing appears along edges of front cover. Jacket is preserved in mylar cover.
""The Nature of Roman Comedy" provides the most complete and definitive study of Roman comedy to be made available to English readers...Dealing primarily with the comedies of Plautus and Terence, whose works represent the corpus of Roman comedy, the author analyzes and discusses the plots and characters of the plays, stage conventions, suspense and irony, the nature of the humor, the verbal and musical features, and the originality of the two playwrights. The relationship between the Roman plays and the earlier Greek comedy is not neglected, but the emphasis here is on the Roman comedies as plays and as popular entertainment.
The final chapter traces in considerable detail the extensive influence which the comedies of Plautus and Terence exerted upon European comedy in the 16th and 17th centuries and will be of special interest to students of Italian, French, and English drama."