The second chapter turns to the roots of Roman drama, a popular art form throughout our period. It locates Rome’s particular kind of theatre in the larger Italic context, outlines the major playwrights, who exist mostly in fragments, and devotes most of its energy to discussion of Plautus and Terence, the two comedic dramatists whose work survives in sufficient quantity. Themes include the importance of Greek models, the experience of attending a show, the style and tone of comedies, major plot structures, and important characters.

In this chapter, I discuss the voice of the comic poet in the city and, specifically, Aristophanes. Two interrelated questions provide a focus: how does the comic poet ’speak out’ before the city? What is the role of parodic quotation in Old Comedy, the voice within the voice (’speaking out’)? I begin with some general remarks about the role of poetry in the fifth- and fourth-century Athenian democratic polis, that leads into a discussion of the institution of Old Comedy in the light of modem treatments of carnival and the idea of ’ritual reversal’. The second part of the chapter – focused on the Acharnians and the Frogs – looks first at the comic poet ’speaking out’ to the city through the parabasis in particular, and second at how the poet uses other voices, especially the voice of tragedy, in parodic quotation.

From 1915, theatrical commentators repeatedly expressed concern over the American ‘Invasion’ of British theatre. For some, the presence of American actors and writers in London was to be celebrated as a sign of a transatlantic theatrical fraternity. Yet, for a large number of critics, it pointed to a more sinister shift in power from which British theatre had to be defended. This chapter examines what these fears reveal about the wider social anxiety of the time, arguing that the perceived threat to the national drama must be understood in dialogue with the perceived threat to national identity that came with the war and the need to defend national honour on the battlefields. Further, it suggests that the concerns raised speak to a growing unease at the changing power dynamic between the two nations and, more acutely, the suspicion levelled at the neutral stance that America adopted in the war. In discussing concerns over the American ‘invasion, this chapter focuses on the growing popularity of the ‘crook’ play. It also looks at the transfer of British productions to America, focussing on Granville Barker’s ground-breaking tour to the east coast as a means of cultural propaganda.

The Introduction situates the monodies of Euripides’ late plays in the context of theatrical and musical innovation in Athens in the late fifth century. In plays produced after 415 BCE – in particular Ion, Iphigenia among the Taurians, Phoenician Women, and Orestes – Euripides departs from the model of actor’s lyric established by Aeschylus and Sophocles and followed in his own previous work. Solo song is no longer restricted to women, to royalty, or to situations that call for lamentation; nor is the soloist necessarily closely tied to the chorus. In his late plays, Euripides successively redefines monody: each song takes over a traditional Bauform of tragedy and builds upon it. Monody becomes a site of formal innovation and experimentation. At the same time, solo song facilitates the creation of an individual voice of broad emotional and expressive range.