The Dramatic Values in Plautus

The dissertation reevaluates Plautus as a comic dramatist by surveying classical and modern criticism and assembling evidence about original performance conditions — audience, actors, gestures, masks, and stage business — then analyzes the plays to catalogue recurring techniques such as stock characters, soliloquy and audience address, rapid physical business, verbal play, and structural repetition. Combining historical documentation with close readings, it reconstructs likely acting practices and theatrical conventions to show how performance choices prioritized comic effect over strict dramatic continuity.