Plutarch

According to certain scholars, Ariosto translated a number of Plautus’ plays for Ercole I. More probably Ariosto did in effect adapt the Latin playwright’s plays to the vernacular for needs tied to their representation in court, but well after the rule of Ercole I, that ended in 1505. We know that Isabella d’Este, after having seen the Menaechmi in Ferrara, in January/February 1529, took with her to Mantua Ariosto’s translation so as to be able to read it with care and give it back a few weeks later to a trepidating Ludovico. The manuscripts of Ariosto’s translations of the Menaechmi and the Aulularia were still in Ferrara in the early XVIII century, with the poet’s heirs, but have since been lost. The staging of Plautus’ plays in the court at Ferrara during the reign of Ercole I was in any case very frequent: Menaechmi [1486-1489], Amphitrion [1487, 1490, 1491], Andria [1491], the Eunuch, Trinummus, Poenulus [1499], Asinaria [1500], Captivi, Mercator [1501], Epidicus, Bacchides, Miles gloriosus, Càsina [1502]. Further representations were arranged for certain special occasions: on 22 May 1492 the Menaechmi was staged in honour of  Ludovico il Moro’s visit to Ferrara. 1503 saw the staging of Aulularia, Mostellaria, the Eunuch, and Maenechmi. It was in this period that Ludovico’s theatrical interests began to take shape. Plautus’ influence is particularly evident in the Suppositi, where there is an evident interlacing of Plautus’ Captivi and Terence’s Eunuch, and in the Cassaria where the reference to the ‘cassa’ in the title recalls Plautus, and is modelled on the Cistellaria.