Terence: Hecyra

Terence's Hecyra raises social, literary and theatrical issues of great interest to modern students of Roman comedy and, indeed, of Roman culture more broadly. The play pays strikingly close attention to the domestic problems of women and experiments boldly with traditional comic forms, not only in its creation of anticipatory suspense, but through its variations on traditional situations and roles and its metatheatrical qualities. In addition, Terence's response in his prologues to the play's two putative failures is important, if tendentious, evidence for the mechanics of theatrical performance in the second century, especially the conjunction of theatrical and gladiatorial shows. This edition opens the play's many interpretive challenges to wider scrutiny while remaining attentive to the linguistic needs of students at all levels.

• Provides very full grammatical notes with examples and references as well as detailed attention to metrical forms and their dramatic effects
• Introduction pays special attention to interpretive problems unique to the evidence of performance scripts
• Commentary includes suggestions on staging, delivery and historical evidence for performance in order to take students closer to appreciating the living art that lies under the textual record