SOURCE: Roland G. Kent, "Variety and Monotony in Plautine Plots, in Philological Quarterly, Vol. II, No. 3, July, 1923, pp. 164-72.

In the following essay, Kent outlines what is often said to be the "typical" Plautine plot and identifies the ways in which Plautus's plays vary from this stereotype.

The amusing comedies of Plautus, despite their great influence on the comedy of later times,¹ have suffered diminished favor with the readers of Latin, to some extent, perhaps, because they are regarded as a low form of literature,² even apart from the indecencies of language and of situation in which certain of the plays abound, but even more, I suspect, because the several plays are believed to be only minor variations on one typical plot.

This plot would be summarized about as follows:³ An unmarried young man of good family, often during the absence of his father, has fallen in love...