The moderns

the romantic loss of comedy

pp. 23-44

in: Dmitri Nikulin, Comedy, seriously, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014

Abstract

Of all the authors of New Comedy, Menander was probably still known in the Middle Ages. However, unlike Aristophanes's comedies, his works did not survive the medieval era, since they were perceived as frivolous and, hence, out of line with the current morality. Plautus, Terence, and Saint Jerome's teacher, Donatus, were read, owing to the interest in Latin literature in the Middle Ages.¹ Nonetheless, ancient comedy had a limited impact on medieval comedy in general, which had a great variety of forms.²