Barbara Gold, the Edward North Professor of Classics Emerita, recently published an article titled “The Wife in Charge, the Husband Humiliated: Stock Characters in Evolution” in A Companion to Plautus. The edited volume from Wiley Blackwell is part of the Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World series.
In her article, Gold explored the shape-shifting characters in the works of Plautus, focusing on the Roman playwright’s late career comedy Casina.
“Casina,” Gold wrote of the title character, “is an impossible hybrid: a male actor playing a female character who never appears, but who is brought to life only by a male character…who cross-dresses in wedding garb to channel the missing Casina.”
