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Plautus

(Encyclopedia)Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)plô´ts [key], c.254–184 BC, Roman writer of comedies, b. Umbria. His plays, adapted from those of Greek New Comedy, are popular and vigorous representations of mid...

Warner, William

(Encyclopedia)Warner, William, 1558?–1609, English poet. A lawyer educated at Oxford, he wrote Pan his Syrinx (1584), translated Plautus's Menaechmi (1595), and gained a reputation with Albion's England, a long h...

Diphilus

(Encyclopedia)Diphilus df´ls [key], fl. 300 BC, Greek dramatist of the New Comedy, b. Sinope. His many dramas (perhaps 100) were extensively adapted by Plautus and Terence and influenced the entire Roman sta...

Udall, Nicholas

(Encyclopedia)Udall, Nicholas, 1505–56, English dramatist, educated at Oxford. He was headmaster of Eton (1534–41) and of Westminster School (from 1554). His one extant play, Ralph Roister Doister (c.1545), is ...

Regnard, Jean François

(Encyclopedia)Regnard, Jean François zhäN fräNswä´ rnyär´ [key], 1655–1709, French comic dramatist. He traveled widely in Europe; captured by Barbary pirates, he was held in slavery (1678–79) until ran...

Terence

(Encyclopedia)Terence (Publius Terentius Afer)tr´ns [key], b. c.185 or c.195 BC, d. c.159 BC, Roman writer of comedies, b. Carthage. As a boy he was a slave of Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, who brought h...

Menander

(Encyclopedia)Menander mnn´dr [key], 342?–291? BC, Greek poet, the most famous writer of New Comedy. He wrote ingenious plays using the love plot as his theme; his style is elegant and elaborate and his ch...

farce

(Encyclopedia)farce, light, comic theatrical piece in which the characters and events are greatly exaggerated to produce broad, absurd humor. Early examples of farce can be found in the comedies of Aristophanes, Pl...

auk

(Encyclopedia)auk ôk [key], common name for a member of the family Alcidae (alcid family), swimming and diving birds of the N Atlantic and Pacific, which includes the guillemots and puffins. Their legs are set far...

Shakespeare's Plays

(Encyclopedia)Shakespeare's Plays(arranged by approximate date of composition)PlayApproximate date of compositionDate of first publicationSourcesMajor charactersGenreHenry VI, Part II15901594 Edward Hall, Union o...

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