LITERARY SOURCES IN THE LATIN HUMANISTIC COMEDY “BOPHILARIA”, BY EGIDIO GALLO

Abstract

Scholars agree on saying that Plauto and Terencio set the benchmark for the Latin humanistic comedy, shaping its plots, its schemes, its structures and its language. Nonetheless it remains to be established exactly how and to what extent these two sources from the past molded the content and the shape of every particular humanistic comedy. In this paper I intend to verify how ancient Roman comedy influenced the Latin humanistic comedy Bophilaria (1505), by Egidio Gallo. Surprisingly, after a thorough examination this play looks almost like a bona fide Plautine cento.