Amphitruo

As I lay, I rose up: methought the house was all on fire, so brightly did it shine.'—Amphitruo, 1060-67.

There are none of the plays of Plautus which it is so difficult to criticise from a modern point of view as the 'Amphitruo.'

Without assigning precedence to any one over the other, a preference may be indicated for these five, as combining the most varied elements of interest with the best execution—Aulularia, Captivi, Menaechmi, Pseudolus, Rudens; and for these, as second to the former in interest owing to some inferiority in comic power, artistic execution, or natural vraisemblance, or owing to some element in them which offends the taste or moral sentiment—Trinummus, Mostellaria, Miles Gloriosus, Bacchides, Amphitruo.

From the Amphitruo of Plautus, Shakespeare derived the doubling of slaves, and the scene in which the younger twin and his slave are shut out of their own home.

Amphitruo, a tragicomoedia, the only play of Plautus of the kind.