Two sets of twins are separated at birth by a storm at sea: a pair of masters (both named Antipholus) and a pair of servants (both named Dromio). Years later, the Antipholus-and- Dromio pair raised in Syracuse happen to visit Ephesus, where the respective twins reside — providing the basis for ongoing incidents of mistaken identity, within a lively plot of quarrels, arrests, and a grand courtroom denouement.Based on a pair of comic dramas from ancient Rome, The Comedy of Errors...
Greek playwright, Aristophanes, lived during the 5th and 4th century BC and is considered one of the principal authors of the Greek classical period. Of the nearly thirty plays he wrote during his career, eleven are extant. Amongst the most famous of these is “Lysistrata,” a comedy which focuses on the women of Greece whose husbands have left for the Peloponnesian War. The women do not care about the conflict as much as they care about missing their husbands. Its titular character, Lysistrata,...
Originally published in the First Folio of 1623, “Measure for Measure” is William Shakespeare’s play which was likely written sometime in 1603 or 1604. The play begins with Vincentio, the Duke of Vienna, who leaves the government in charge of the authoritarian justice, Angelo, when he departs the city on a diplomatic mission. Lord Angelo believes that there is too much debauchery in the city and seeks to more strictly enforce laws against certain sexual activities. The story centers on Claudio...
The first play in William Shakespeare’s tetralogy of plays which also includes “Henry IV, Part 1”, “Henry IV, Part 2”, and “Henry V”, “Richard II” is believed to have been written around 1595. A history play, the drama concerns the last two years of the life of King Richard II of England, spanning the years 1398 to 1400. The drama begins with a dispute between Richard’s cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, who would later become King Henry IV, and Thomas de Mowbray, first Duke of Norfolk. Henry has...
Considered by many the greatest of the classic Greek tragedies, Oedipus Rex is Sophocles' finest play and a work of extraordinary power and resonance. Aristotle considered it a masterpiece of dramatic construction and refers to it frequently in the Poetics.In presenting the story of King Oedipus and the tragedy that ensues when he discovers he has inadvertently killed his father and married his mother, the play exhibits near-perfect harmony of character and action. Moreover, the masterly...
Though little is known for certain of his early life, Euripides was probably born around 460 b.c.e. to the farmer Mnesarchus and his wife Clito, and his studious nature quickly led him to a literary life in Athens. He turned to playwriting at a young age, achieving his first of five victories in the dramatic competitions of the Athenian City Dionysia in 441 b.c.e. His plays are often ironic, pessimistic, and display radical rejection of classical decorum and rules. Together with Aeschylus and...
Эзоп – полулегендарный раб с острова Самос, живший в VI в. до н. э., автор множества басен, ставших достоянием мало сказать европейской – земной культуры. Его сюжетами пользовались такие мастера басни, как Лафонтен и Крылов, его афоризмы вошли в поговорки многих народов, в том числе и русского. Выделить из басенного наследия Античности собственно произведения Эзопа практически невозможно, потому что греки и римляне все свои басни привычно называли «эзоповыми». Но яркую басенную интонацию,...
