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.
 

T. H. M. Gellar-Goad is Professor of Classics and Denton Fellow at Wake Forest University. He writes books. 

Table of Contents
 
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Sermo Plautinus
Plautine Meters
            Sigla: a key to the symbols in this text of Curculio
            Schema metrorum: the meters of Curculio
Text
Commentary
Appendix: scansion of the canticum of Plautus’ Curculio (lines 96–157)
Works Cited
Index Locorum
General Index