Terence

Terence (185-159 bc), Roman playwright, whose plays were forerunners of the modern comedy of manners.

Terence was born about 185 bc in Carthage and taken to Rome as the slave of the senator Publius Terentius Lucanus, who educated him and later freed him. After gaining his freedom, he assumed the name Publius Terentius Afer, after his patron. His first play was the Andria, produced in 166 bc. With its immediate success, Terence, who had an engaging personality, soon became a favourite in Roman literary circles. He is said to have been an intimate friend of Scipio the Younger, in whose circle were statesmen and men of letters concerned with improving the Latin language. Terence's six comedies, produced between 166 and 160 bc, are all based upon Greek originals. Of these, The Woman of Andros, The Self-Tormentor, The Eunuch, and The Brothers are derived from comedies by Menander, and Phormio and The Mother-in-Law are modelled on originals by Apollodorus of Carystus. In 160 bc Terence journeyed to Greece, to search for additional plays by Menander, and he died the following year while on his homeward journey.

Terence's plays were light, witty dramas satirizing life among the wealthy and sophisticated. Unlike the comedies of his famous predecessor Plautus, the satires of Terence contain little song and dance; they also lack the broad farce inherent in the works of Plautus, and their humour, rather than being derived from puns and wordplay, exaggerated characterization, and laughable situations, arises out of subtle handling of both plot and character. Trickery is used less often than in the works of Plautus, and a greater emphasis is placed on mistaken identity and recognition. With the exception of the Hecyra, the plot is always double, with two love affairs being interwoven and the happy solution of one usually dependent upon the outcome of the other. In the Middle Ages his comedies were adapted by Hrosvitha and he also influenced the comedy of the Renaissance, the 17th-century French dramatist Molière, and, through him, English playwrights of the 17th and 18th centuries such as Congreve and Sheridan.