Titus Maccius Plautus, Persa

Gesine Manuwald (University College London)
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Plautus’ comedy 

Persa

 (‘

The Persian

’ or ‘

The Iran man

’) is named after the disguise that one of the characters adopts as part of an intrigue. For, as in the case of other plays in the format of (originally Greek) New Comedy, the plot is based on a clever trick in order to obtain money. However, what is unusual about 

Persa

 is that almost all 

dramatis personae

 are slaves. When one of the slaves comes on stage at the beginning of the play, he talks about a lover in need (1); it soon becomes clear that this refers to the speaker himself. When he explains his situation to a fellow slave in the course of the first scene, the latter wonders that in this play the slaves themselves are the lovers (25), rather than assisting the love affairs of their masters as in other comedies of…

2007 words

Citation: Manuwald, Gesine. "Persa". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 December 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34722, accessed 19 March 2024.]

34722 Persa 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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