Truculentus

Acts

• Prologue

  Prologue. The courtesan Phronesium has three lovers: a soldier, a young Athenian, and a country farmer. She plans to fleece all three.

  21 lines
• 1
  Act 1

  Phronesium pretends to have given birth to the soldier's child (actually someone else's baby). The soldier sends lavish gifts.

  222 lines
• 2
  Act 2

  The country lover Strabax arrives. His slave Truculentus ('the Brute') initially despises the courtesan but is gradually seduced by her household.

  519 lines
• 3
  Act 3

  Phronesium manipulates all three lovers, extracting money and gifts from each while keeping them jealous of the others.

  64 lines
• 4
  Act 4

  The baby's real mother appears. The fraud is exposed — but the soldier doesn't care, and the others are too far gone. Phronesium has won.

  261 lines
• 5
  Act 5

  The darkest of Plautus' comedies. No recognition scene, no happy marriage. The courtesan keeps the money, the men learn nothing, and even the honest slave has been corrupted.

  100 lines