A Commentary on Plautus' Curculio

Lively and critically aware, T. H. M. Gellar-Goad’s A Commentary on Plautus’ Curculio is the new reference text on the play.

Curculio follows the efforts of the title character to trick a sex-trafficker into handing over an enslaved woman to the young man infatuated with her instead of to the soldier who’s paid for her — and will turn out to be her long-lost brother.

As Plautus’ shortest comedy, Curculio has proven to be a desirable text for university performances.

The play exemplifies Plautus’ style, with a blend of erotic, deception, and recognition plotlines, plus a wide range of archetypal characters.

Gellar-Goad’s commentary is the complete package, with introductions to themes, content, humor, meter, and syntax; notes on matters of performance, interpretation, and social history; and a text with aids to scansion and clarifying stage directions. This up-to-date, authoritative commentary on the play will prove useful to directors and actors and will readily introduce students to the joys of Roman comedy.