''Terentius et delusor'' is an anonymous poetical treatise, variously described as a dialogueSegal, 221. or spoken play,Dronke, ''Nine Medieval Latin Plays'', xvii. preserved only in fragments in a twelfth-century manuscript. It is the earliest example of the author or presenter of a play appearing as a person in the work, and in this case both appear:

Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a Roman African playwright during the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 166–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought ...

and the (critical) theatrical producer (''persona delusoris''). The poem was probably acted or recited before a performance of one of Terence's works. It has been dated to the fifth century, the seventh, between the seventh and eleventh, the ninth or tenth century, and the Carolingian Renaissance (ninth century). The piece often finds mention beside Roswitha, who composed Christian dramas in Terentian style. The plot of the brief performance piece is that the producer criticises Terence's plays as boring and out of style. Terence then proceeds to defend his work, probably ultimately submitting it to the judgement of the audience, who then viewed a performance of one of his plays. The play was probably mimed while the Terence character recited it, "in the manner thought to be characteristic of actual Roman performances." The short piece testifies, however, to the lack of certainty about ancient practice. ''An sit prosaicum nescio an metricum'' says the producer about the drama of

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus (; c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the ...

: "we do not know whether they may be prose or meter."Menéndez y Pelayo, chapt. 7; Segal, 221. ''Terentius et delusor'' was given its first modern edition, with annotations, by

Charles Magnin Charles Magnin (born in Paris, 4 November 1793; died there,7 October 1862) was a French author. Biography He received a brilliant education, and in 1813 became assistant in the imperial library, and in 1832 one of the directors of that institutio ...

in the ''

Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes The ''Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes'' is a journal dedicated to the study and use of medieval manuscripts. It was founded in 1839 and continues to provide bi-annual issues with articles and abstracts in French, English, and German. Star ...

'' (vol. 1:1839–40, pp. 517–535), where he titled it "Fragment d'un comique inédit du septième siècle" (Fragment of an unedited comedy of the seventh century). Next, Paul von Winterfeld edited the poem for ''Hrotsvithae Opera'', xx–xxiii, in MGH SS rerum Germanicarum (Berlin: 1902). An updated version was made by Karl Strecker for MGH, ''Poetae Latini aevi Carolini'', IV, 1088–90, in 1923 and for ''Hrotsvithae Opera'' in 1930. It has since appeared (without translation) in Appendix V, 326–328, of volume II of E. K. Chambers' ''The Medieval Stage''.

Sources

*Chambers, Edmund Kerchever (1903). ''The Mediaeval Stage'', 2 vols. Oxford. . *Dronke, Peter (1984). ''Women Writers of the Middle Ages: A Critical Study of Texts from Perpetua (+203) to Marguerite Porete (+1310)''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Dronke, Peter, ed. and trans. (1994). ''Nine Medieval Latin Plays''. Cambridge Medieval Classics I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . *Segal, Erich (2001). ''The Death of Comedy''. Harvard University Press. . *Tydeman, William (1978). ''The Theatre in the Middle Ages: Western European Stage Conditions c. 800–1576''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Manso, Francisco Nodar (1990). ''Teatro Menor Galaico-Portugués (Siglo XIII): Reconstrucción Contextual y Teoría del Discurso''. Edition Reichenberger. . * Menéndez y Pelayo, Marcelino
''La Celestina: Razones para tratar de esta obra dramática en la historia de la novela española''.
Buenos Aires: Espasa-Calpe, 1947. *Ogilvy, J. D. A. (1963). "''Mimi'', ''Scurrae'', ''Histriones'': Entertainers of the Early Middle Ages." '' Speculum'', 38:4 (October), pp. 603–619.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Terentius Et Delusor Medieval drama Early medieval Latin literature