"Antipholus of Syracuse were separated from each other in a shipwreck as young children. Their servants, both named Dromio, are also long-separated identical twins. When the pair from Syracuse come to Ephesus, a comedy of errors and mistaken identities ensues when the wives of the Ephesians, Adriana and her servant Luce, mistake the two strangers for their husbands. Adriana's sister Luciana and the Syracuse Antipholus fall in love. But all ends happily. The 2002 revival ended with : The Boys from Syracuse The Boys from Syracuse is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart, based"
"twins, a series of wild mishaps based on mistaken identities lead to wrongful beatings, a near-seduction, the arrest of Antipholus of Ephesus, and false accusations of infidelity, theft, madness, and demonic possession. Act I Because a law forbids merchants from Syracuse to enter Ephesus, elderly Syracusian trader Egeon faces execution when he is discovered in the city. He can only escape by paying a fine of a thousand marks. He tells his sad story to Solinus, Duke of Ephesus. In his youth, Egeon married and had twin sons. On the same day, a poor woman without a job also gave"
"of Cordus in ""Sejanus"", Act III."" The play opens with a conversation between Paris and two actors in his troupe, Latinus and Aesopus; they discuss the poor professional prospects they face. Their one great advantage is the patronage of the Roman Emperor Domitian; otherwise, the current atmosphere of political uncertainty leaves them with little audience; their ""amphitheatre...Is quite forsaken"". Two lictors appear to summon Paris to the Senate, where he must ""answer / What shall be urg'd against you."" As Paris and his actors leave with the lictors, they are watched by three senators, Aelius Lamia, Junius Rusticus and Palphurius"
"at Florence, Italy. The second manuscript is the ""Codex Palantinus 287"", thought to be from the fourteenth or fifteenth century. It is kept in the Vatican Library. The meter is principally iambic trimeter, which it has in common with tragedy and comedy. Regarding the date of composition, it is thought that this play was written earlier than Euripides' ""Alcestis"", and after Aristophanes' play ""Acharnians"", which parodies the ""Cyclops"". The play is set in Sicily at Mount Aetna. It begins with an opening monologue by Silenus, who tells the tale of how he and his satyrs, who are his off-spring and"
"inappropriate as a description, as the scene changes are often very fluid, almost montage-like. The large number of scenes is necessary because the action frequently switches between Alexandria, Italy, Messina in Sicily, Syria, Athens, and other parts of Egypt and the Roman Republic. The play contains thirty-four speaking characters, fairly typical for a Shakespeare play on such an epic scale. Many critics have noted the strong influence of Virgil's first-century Roman epic poem, the ""Aeneid"", on Shakespeare's ""Antony and Cleopatra"". Such influence should be expected, given the prevalence of allusions to Virgil in the Renaissance culture in which Shakespeare was"
"himself. Moreover, Themistius, a writer of the 4th century AD, reports that Thespis invented the prologue as well as the spoken part (). Other playwrights of the time were Choerilus, author of probably one hundred and sixty tragedies (with thirteen victories), and Pratinas of Phlius, author of fifty works, of which thirty-two are satyr plays. We have little record of these works except their titles. At this time, satyr plays were presented alongside tragedies. Pratinas definitely competed with Aeschylus and worked from 499 BC. Another playwright was Phrynichus. Aristophanes sings his praises in his plays: for example, ""The Wasps"" presents"
"putting their hands over his mouth. Soon they are fighting over the cloak and criticizing the author and the spectators as well. In the play proper, the goddess Diana, also called Cynthia, has ordained a ""solemn revels"" in the valley of Gargaphie in Greece. The gods Cupid and Mercury appear, and they too start to argue. Mercury has awakened Echo, who weeps for Narcissus, and states that a drink from Narcissus's spring causes the drinkers to ""Grow dotingly enamored of themselves."" The courtiers and ladies assembled for the Cynthia's revels all drink from the spring. Asotus, a foolish spendthrift who"
"The Suppliants (Euripides) The Suppliants (, ""Hiketides""; Latin ""Supplices""), also called The Suppliant Maidens, or The Suppliant Women, first performed in 423 BC, is an ancient Greek play by Euripides. After Oedipus leaves Thebes, his sons fight for control of it. Polyneices lays siege to Thebes against his brother Eteocles. Polyneices has married the daughter of Adrastus, King of Argos. And so Polyneices has on his side the Argive army, leaders of which help form the Seven Against Thebes. The invaders lose the battle, and Polyneices and Eteocles both die. Creon takes power in Thebes and decrees the invaders are"
"Miles Gloriosus (play) Miles Gloriosus is a comedic play written by Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254–184 B.C.). The title can be translated as ""The Swaggering Soldier"" or ""Vainglorious Soldier"". His source for ""Miles Gloriosus"" was a Greek play, now lost, called ""Alazon"" or ""The Braggart"". Although the characters in ""Miles Gloriosus"" speak Latin, they are Greeks and largely have Greek names, clothing, and customs. The action takes place in Ephesus, a Greek city on the coast of Asia Minor, famous for its Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The play commences with the entrance"
"treated him better when he was his captive slave. Hegio and his two sons, Philopolemus and Tyndarus, are reunited in a happy ending. Unlike most of Plautus’ comedies, this play offers little in the way of sexual titillation and instead concentrates on rather serious subjects: personal freedom, slavery and war. Although the mistaken identity elements of the plot are sometimes played for laughs and the sponger Ergasilus is brought on for some silly stage business, there are also quite serious speeches about the fate of slaves and the realities of war. In fact, the play begins with Philocrates and Tyndarus"
"play was ""Laius"", the second was ""Oedipus"", and the third was ""Seven against Thebes"". Only the third play survives, in which Oedipus' sons Eteocles and Polynices kill each other warring over the throne. Much like his ""Oresteia"", this trilogy would have detailed the tribulations of a House over three successive generations. The satyr play that followed the trilogy was called ""The Sphinx"". As Sophocles' ""Oedipus Rex"" begins, the people of Thebes are begging the king for help, begging him to discover the cause of the plague. Oedipus stands before them and swears to find the root of their suffering and"
"played by Burbage. The proud Silius, whose confrontation with Tiberius occupies the core of the first three acts and whose suicide is a traditionally noble Roman death, most likely would have gone to Heminges, with the more military Condell as the Guards Captain Macro. Phillips, who had been playing dissolute men for some time, would seem very likely for Tiberius if not for Jonson's hint that it was actually Shakespeare. Still, with Shakespeare as Tiberius, there is a very large role for an indignant speechmaker, Arruntius, that would have taken advantage of Phillips's rhetorical skills. Grote further suggests that the"
"Dionysus discuss the dire situation on Earth, the Greek Chorus offers and ironic commentary to the audience: though serious matters are being weighed onstage, there is no cause for alarm. Following the banquet, Dionysus bursts out of the palace to proclaim the entrance of George Bernard Shaw and his loyal passel of Shavians. When William Shakespeare emerges from the palace, the philosophical tension between the two titans escalates swiftly until they almost come to blows. Dionysus defuses the situation by declaring a contest between the two playwrights. Each will address the important issues of humanity using only the words of"
"- Simo's son Pseudolus - Simo's chief slave Callipho - a neighbor and friend of Simo Charinus - a friend of Calidorus Ballio - a pimp Phoenicium - (mute) a girl in the possession of Ballio and loved by Calidorus Harpax - an officer's orderly Simia - a slave The play starts with the prologue, which is a warning to the audience that the play is long and now is the time to stretch their legs because they are about to be sitting for a long time. Once the play starts Calidorus and Pseudolus enter the stage, Calidorus is visibly"
"at the Greek banquet in Plato’s ""Symposium"" at which he gets the last word on the nature of love, proposing that it cannot be found in superficial appearance. Performance history in Shakespeare's lifetime is unknown, though the same is also true of his more highly regarded plays such as"" Antony and Cleopatra"" and ""Coriolanus,"" which most scholars believe were written in the same period. The earliest known performance of the straight Shakespearean text was at Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin in 1761. The earliest-known production of a predominantly Shakespearean version of the play in the United Kingdom was at Sadler's"
"the queen to judge which of the two should win her hand. Having left, a crowd of people come into view. There are six foresters and six shepherds (among them the suitors), the Lady of May herself, and a schoolmaster called Rombus. After a brief quarrel between Rombus and the May Lady, the two suitors, Therion and Espilus, begin a singing competition. With this finished a second debate starts between Rixus, a forester (like Therion) and Dorcas, a shepherd (like Espilus). This is moderated by Rombus. The Queen judges Espilus to have won the contest and Espilus sings to celebrate."
"Mediterranean, most notably, Athens. ""Rudens"" is introduced by a prologue given by Arcturus, before the play properly opens with a dialogue between Daemones, an elderly Athenian man, and his slave, Sceparnio; Sceparnio's cheekiness towards his master, who seems to lack the strength to contest this behaviour, is the provision of humour from the outset. Shortly after this, a young Athenian man called Plesidippus appears onstage, to seek information politely from Daemones. The interaction between slave and master (or rather, stranger) is shown again, as Sceparnio gives Plesidippus an extremely cold reception, showing his rudeness but also, possibly, his care for"
"of his senior courtier, Nicanor. Nicanor quickly reveals himself to be both the play's villain and its senex: though an old man himself, he wants to marry Leonida and so become king after Atticus. The second scene introduces Swetnam and his servant Swash, the play's clown. The conceit is that Swetnam has been driven out of England by the public's righteous indignation over his anti-female slanders; he has moved to Sicily and taken to calling himself Misogynos. (The play provides the earliest known use in English of the term ""misogynist."") Once in Sicily, however, he has fallen back into his"
"in 472 BC Aeschylus won the first prize with ""Phineaus"", ""Persae"", ""Glaucus"" and the satyr play ""Prometheus"". Among Euripides’ entries, Haigh underlines ""Theristae"" (431 BC), ""Sisyphus"" (415 BC) and ""Alcestis"" which Euripides was allowed to present as a replacement of the traditional satyr play. Much of the evidence and information found regarding satyr plays and their history has been located through vase paintings. The mythological origins of the satyrs are closely linked to the advent of Dionysus into Hellenic culture. The satyrs and their female counterpart, the maenads, were followers of Dionysus, a “late-comer to Olympus and probably of Asiatic"
"The Suppliants (Aeschylus) The Suppliants (, ""Hiketides""; Latin ""Supplices""), also called The Suppliant Maidens, or The Suppliant Women, is a play by Aeschylus. It was probably first performed sometime after 470 BC as the first play in a tetralogy, sometimes referred to as the Danaid Tetralogy, which probably included the lost plays ""The Egyptians"" (also called ""Aigyptioi""), and ""The Daughters of Danaus"" (also called ""The Danaids"" or ""The Danaides""), and the satyr play ""Amymone"". It was long thought to be the earliest surviving play by Aeschylus due to the relatively anachronistic function of the chorus as the protagonist of the"
"It is Shakespeare's bloodiest and most violent work, and traditionally was one of his least respected plays; although it was extremely popular in its day, by the later 17th century it had fallen out of favour. In the Victorian era, it was disapproved of primarily because of what was considered to be a distasteful use of graphic violence, but from around the middle of the 20th century its reputation began to improve. The play begins shortly after the death of the Roman emperor, with his two sons, Saturninus and Bassianus, squabbling over who will succeed him. Their conflict seems set"
"complete extant satyr play is Euripides's ""Cyclops"", which is a burlesque of a scene from the eighth-century BC epic poem, the ""Odyssey"", in which Odysseus is captured by the Cyclops Polyphemus in a cave. In the play, Polyphemus has captured a tribe of satyrs led by Silenus, who is described as their ""Father"", and forced them to work for him as his slaves. After Polyphemus captures Odysseus, Silenus attempts to play Odysseus and Polyphemus off each other for his own benefit, primarily by tricking them into giving him wine. As in the original scene, Odysseus manages to blind Polyphemus and"
"to Aeschylus, and that references to the play appear in the plays of the comic Aristophanes. This has led historians to date it as late as 415 BCE, long after Aeschylus's death. If Euphorion wrote ""Prometheus Bound"", there are as a result five ancient Greek tragedians with one or more fully surviving plays: Aeschylus, Euphorion, Sophocles, Euripides, and the unknown author of the tragedy Rhesus. Euphorion (playwright) Euphorion (, ""Euphoríōn"") was the son of the Greek tragedian Aeschylus, and himself an author of tragedies. In the Dionysia of 431 BCE, Euphorion won 1st prize, defeating both Sophocles (who took 2nd"
"appears at the end of Act 2 to lament the turn of events. In Act 3, expatriates retake Padua with the help from ""troops of Venice, Ferrare, and the Pope."" Act 4 brings about Ezzelino's death and by the end of Act 5, his family are killed. The Chorus ends the play. ""Ecerinis"" is written in Latin verse and follows a Senecan model in its rhyme scheme. For example, the dialogues are written in iambic trimeter and the chorus is written using ""a pattern of Sapphic, Adonic, and anapest"". The themes of the play are reflected within the following lines"
"the stories of Hercules and Theseus. The Dioscuri are also invoked in Alcaeus' Fragment 34a, though whether this poem antedates the Homeric Hymn to the twins is unknown. They appear together in two plays by Euripides, ""Helen"" and ""Elektra"". Cicero tells the story of how Simonides of Ceos was rebuked by Scopas, his patron, for devoting too much space to praising Castor and Pollux in an ode celebrating Scopas' victory in a chariot race. Shortly afterwards, Simonides was told that two young men wished to speak to him; after he had left the banqueting room, the roof fell in and"
"Hippias of Elis and Prodicus of Ceos. Two of the sons of Pericles are said to be there, Paralus and Xanthippus. With the exception of Aristophanes, all of Socrates' named friends from the """"Symposium"""" are in attendance: Eryximachus the doctor, and Phaedrus are there, and so are the lovers Pausanias and Agathon (who is said to be a mere boy at this point), and Alcibiades. Additionally, there are several unnamed foreigners whom Protagoras is said to have picked up in his travels and a servant (a eunuch) in the employ of Callias. The dialogue begins with an unnamed friend of"
"any playwright still extant (save a few missing lines in several spots) is the ""Oresteia"" (458 BC), although the satyr play that originally followed it, ""Proteus"", is lost except for some fragments. The trilogy consists of ""Agamemnon"", ""The Libation Bearers"" (""Choephoroi""), and ""The Eumenides"". Together, these plays tell the bloody story of the family of Agamemnon, King of Argos. Aeschylus begins in Greece describing the return of King Agamemnon from his victory in the Trojan War, from the perspective of the towns people (the Chorus) and his wife, Clytemnestra. However, dark foreshadowings build to the death of the king at"
"which are mentioned multiple times throughout the play, especially during the first act; the play's opening line is Saturninus' address to ""Noble patricians, patrons of my right"" (l.1). In the second speech of the play, Bassianus states ""And suffer not dishonour to approach/The imperial seat, to virtue consecrate,/To justice, continence and nobility;/But let desert in pure election shine"" (ll.13–16). From this point onwards, the concept of nobility is at the heart of everything that happens. H.B. Charlton argues of this opening Act that ""the standard of moral currency most in use is honour."" When Marcus announces Titus' imminent arrival, he"
"city) being a key development of human civilization. The play tells the story of Eteocles and Polynices, the sons of the shamed King of Thebes, Oedipus. The sons agree to alternate in the throne of the city, but after the first year Eteocles refuses to step down, and Polynices wages war to claim his crown. The brothers kill each other in single combat, and the original ending of the play consisted of lamentations for the dead brothers. A new ending was added to the play some fifty years later: Antigone and Ismene mourn their dead brothers, a messenger enters announcing"
"the eponymous chorus of frogs (the only scene in which frogs feature in the play). Their croaking refrain – (Greek: ) – greatly annoys Dionysus, who engages in a mocking debate (agon) with the frogs. When he arrives at the shore, Dionysus meets up with Xanthias, who teases him by claiming to see the frightening monster Empusa. A second chorus composed of spirits of Dionysian Mystics soon appear. The next encounter is with Aeacus, who mistakes Dionysus for Heracles due to his attire. Still angry over Heracles' theft of Cerberus, Aeacus threatens to unleash several monsters on him in revenge."
"know of them only through preserved fragments, and the reports of other ancient writers. Each of the three great tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides wrote multiple plays which featured the story. Aeschylus wrote a play called ""Mysians"" which perhaps told the story of Telephus coming to Mysia and seeking purification for having killed his maternal uncles. Aeschylus wrote another play ""Telephus"" thought to be a sequel to ""Mysians"", in which Telephus comes to Argos seeking the healing of his wound, and perhaps also included Telephus' seizure of Orestes as hostage. Sophocles probably wrote at least four plays: ""Aleadae"" (""The Sons"
"Antigone (Sophocles play) Antigone ( ; ) is a tragedy by Sophocles written in or before 441 BC. Of the three Theban plays ""Antigone"" is the third in order of the events depicted in the plays, but it is the first that was written. The play expands on the Theban legend that predates it, and it picks up where Aeschylus' ""Seven Against Thebes"" ends. Prior to the beginning of the play, brothers Eteocles and Polyneices, leading opposite sides in Thebes' civil war, died fighting each other for the throne. Creon, the new ruler of Thebes and brother of the former"
"love, sexual passion, procreation, death, and time. Shakespeare's first plays were written in the conventional style of the day. He wrote them in a stylised language that does not always spring naturally from the needs of the characters or the drama. The poetry depends on extended, sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits, and the language is often rhetorical—written for actors to declaim rather than speak. The grand speeches in ""Titus Andronicus"", in the view of some critics, often hold up the action, for example; and the verse in ""The Two Gentlemen of Verona"" has been described as stilted. However, Shakespeare soon"