The Pot of Gold and Other Plays (Penguin Classics)

Ever wonder what it was like to live in Rome during the Conquest Period? Were Roman slaves loyal? Why or why not? Reading the plays of the classic Roman period provide an excellent insight into the life and times of the Romans...the everyday life in Rome!

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I read this book and was generally unimpressed by the rather sanitized and anglicized translation written in a sort of "dandy" late middle English style that is unbefitting of Plautus' excellent prose and comedy.

Required for class. Interesting

So yes I had to buy this for class. It was cheaper than buying it from school and it arrived on time, so I'm happy.

Plautus is an important Roman comedian, because he preserves Greek works (The Swaggering Soldier is a re-telling of a lost Greek play, Alazon, or The Braggart), and he shows us some of the similarities between ancient Greek and Roman senses of humor, which are not far from contemporary Western senses of humor. Plautus also influenced other great playwrights. For example, The Brothers Menaechmus is generally considered a simpler template for Shakespeare's richer The Comedy of Errors.In this selection, one will encounter some of Western society's earliest slapstick comedies and humorous, moral critiques of undesirable human behaviors. Plautus' penchant for wordplay is also showcased in this text. Plautus' plays are very easy and quick to read, and this 1965 translation definitely has a modern sensibility to it. For example, you will find that Plautus' characters like to cuss a lot, generally at the expense of women.I recommend this book to readers of ancient Rome and readers interested in the history of the stage.

I agree with another reviewer that this collection of plays makes a good history lesson, but for me the lesson went beyond the development of people's sense of humor over time. Plautus avoids philosophy and politics, skipping right to slice-of-life stories about ordinary people, stories that today would be considered situation comedies. (Several of the plays in this book were amalgamated into the modern-day musical "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.") Reading this book gave me a sense of what life on the streets of ancient Rome was like.A final comment about whether Plautus should be considered Greek or Roman. Plautus wrote in Rome more than 200 years after the classical Greek playrights Aeschylus, Euripides and Aristophanes and more than 100 years after the "new comedy" of the Greek Menander. He borrowed Greek plots and set his own plays in Greece, but I regard this as a convention (much as 20th century playwrights habitually set theirs in New York City) and to me the attitudes of Plautus' characters seem Roman more than Greek.

The Kindle version of this Penguin Classics book is full of OCR (Optical Character Recognition) typos, like "dungs" for "things", "Unes" for "Lines". Don't publishers use proofreaders any more?

The Pot of Gold and Other Plays by Plautus is a collection of plays by the Roman dramatist reflecting on the Roman society through sarcasm,satire and humour. Although the characters bear Greek names but they are essentially Roman in their mannerism. One has to read Plautus to understand the evolution of comedy genre. The translator E.F.Watilng did a tremendous job in maintaining the fervor of the original plays.I received the book in excellent condition.

The product arrived in immaculate conditions, there are only two irregularities which are hardly noticeable and have been handled professionally. I am extremely pleased with the product I received.

Delivered in good condition. Always happy to buy the new penguin classics books with better binding and quality.

very happy with the book

Arrived perfectly and is in a good shape. Definitely a good product.