Menaechmi and the Renaissance of comedy.(Comedy of Errors)

From: Comparative Drama | Date: September 22, 2003| Author: | Copyright information

If The Comedy of Errors remains, for English speakers, the supreme instance of the Menaechmi contribution to drama, that play deserves to be seen as part of a larger picture of European, including English, comedy. Consider, for example, that watershed in the history of European theater occurring at Ferrara on 25 January 1486, with Duke Ercole I's carnival entertainments honoring Francesco Gonzaga, betrothed to Isabella d'Este. Thousands witnessed, with fireworks and other holiday events, the staging of Plautus's Menaechmi. The first publicly performed play in Ferrara, this lively ...

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