SOURCE: Willam S. Anderson, in Barbarian Play: Plautus ' Roman Comedy, University of Toronto Press, 1993, 179 p.
In the following two chapters from his book-length analysis of Plautus's work, Anderson first examines the way in which Plautus subverts the conventional love plot in order to transform Greek romantic comedy into Roman comedy. Next, Anderson traces the development of the concept of "heroic badness "—the immoral tendencies shared by humanity and acted on by Plautus's "heroic rogues "—throughout Plautus's comedies.
