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Terence

Heautontimorumenos

drama

A father wants his son to learn self-discipline. His methods — and his results — are the subject of the comedy. The title means "the self-tormentor," and the father earns the name.

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Acts

  • 1
    Act 1

    Menedemus punishes himself with hard labour because he drove his son Clinia away by opposing his love affair. His neighbour Chremes interferes.

    195 lines
  • 2
    Act 2

    Clinia returns secretly. The slave Syrus begins a scheme to extract money from Chremes — the interfering neighbour, not Menedemus.

    330 lines
  • 3
    Act 3

    Syrus swaps the girlfriends: Clinia's courteous mistress poses as Chremes' son's girlfriend, and vice versa. The deception multiplies.

    290 lines
  • 4
    Act 4

    Chremes discovers part of the scheme. He lectures Menedemus on leniency while being oblivious to his own son's identical behaviour. Terence's finest irony.

    398 lines
  • 5
    Act 5

    The courtesan Antiphila is revealed to be Chremes' own daughter. The 'self-tormentor' is reconciled with his son. The know-it-all Chremes faces his own reckoning.

    319 lines
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