SOURCE: "The 'Terentian' Comedies of a Tenth-Century Nun," The Classical Journal, Vol. XXIV, No. 7, April, 1929, pp. 515-29.

In the following essay, Coulter investigates the extent to which Hroswitha's dramas may be called "Terentian," concluding that "Hrotsvitha's independent contribution to mediaeval Latin literature is far more important than her connection with Terence."

Modem discussions of mediaeval drama are very likely to include the name of Hrotsvitha and some mention of her debt to Roman comedy. Creizenach, in the early pages of his Geschichte des Neueren Dramas, takes up her plays with special interest because they are the one isolated example of the imitation of Terence in the Middle Ages.¹ Chambers, in his account of the influence of classical drama on the interlude, quotes Dr. Ward's statement that Terence "led a charmed life in the darkest ages of learning," mentions Notker Labeo, who at the beginning of the eleventh century...